8 Junior Colleges are Merging? Rumors or Reality?
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Year 2015 article, what has changed since then?
Lesser JCs, lesser chances of entry to local university, lesser local graduates.
But many parents will still continue to pay extra $$ for tuitions or overseas degrees.
Whether our kids belong to the 30% local graduates or the 70% who are not, it is not up to the policy makers to decide their future path.
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapore-wants-kids-skip-university-good-luck?page=1
[quoted from article]
Singapore wants kids to skip university: Good luck with that
Singapore’s Tiger mums are becoming a headache for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is trying to persuade the population that they don’t need to go to university to have a good career. After a clampdown on immigration and a slowdown in the economy, he needs fewer graduates and more workers to fill the shipyards, factory floors and hotel desks that keep the country going.
There is a clear international trend in the developed world to make vocational education a true choice for more young people,” said Professor Pasi Sahlberg, a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet, many still see it as a “secondary choice”, especially in Asia, where parents tend to believe that “higher education would be the only key to prosperity and success”.
Singapore already has a system that sorts children into different subject-based bands at school after testing starting at age 10. They’re later placed into junior colleges or technical institutes based on exams at 16 or 17. Those going to junior college have a higher chance of entry into a local university.
“We can’t become a Germany, but what we can do is adapt some of the very strong points for certain sectors and certain types of skills,” Mr S Iswaran, second minister for trade, said in an interview on Feb 24. (earn-and-learn program)
Persuading Singaporeans to go down the same route will be an uphill task after decades of extolling the importance of education. Singapore households spent S$1.1 billion on tutors outside school in the year ended September 2013, according to the most-recent survey by the statistics department.
Many Singaporeans who don’t get into a local college go abroad. Four in 10 graduates in the resident labour force last year got their degrees overseas.
“The government shouldn’t tell people not to go to university unless they can promise the same job opportunities as graduates,” said Mr Kenneth Chen, 26, whose parents spent more than S$170,000 on a sports science degree in Brisbane, Australia, after he graduated with a biotechnology diploma in Singapore. “But obviously that’s not going to happen.” BLOOMBERG -
A more recent 2017 article.
Will having lesser local graduates stop this global trend of increasing graduates? I'm afraid not.
I hope we don't find overseas Chinese graduates coming to steal our lunches.
Instead, I hope to see Singapore graduates (local or overseas) with the right skills to go out and \"steal other people’s lunches.\" (PM Lee)
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/higher-education-in-china-has-boomed-in-the-last-decade
[quoted from article]
China now produces twice as many graduates a year as the US
A record-breaking 8m students will graduate from Chinese universities in 2017. This figure is nearly ten times higher than it was in 1997 and is more than double the number of students who will graduate this year in the US.
Underemployment
In 2013, Chinese citizens started blogging about the “hardest job hunting season in history” – and each year it seems to get harder for Chinese graduates. In 2017 there will be 1m more new graduates than there were in 2013. And yet, the graduate unemployment rate has remained relatively stable – according to MyCOS Research Institute, only 8% of students who graduated in 2015 were unemployed six months after graduating.
But if you delve a little deeper it’s clear that unemployment rates mask the more subtle issue of “underemployment”. While most graduates eventually find work, too many end up in part-time, low-paid jobs.
Wrong types of skills
Despite the rapid increase in the number of university graduates, Chinese companies complain of not being able to find the high-skilled graduates they need. The main deficit is in so-called “soft skills” such as strong communication, analytical and managerial skills. According to research by McKinsey, there is a short supply of graduates with these assets.
Two types of graduates
It seems then that the problem is not the rising number of students attending university, but that there is a mismatch between the skill composition of graduates and the skills employers need.
Demand for graduates with technical or quantitative skills has in fact risen faster than supply, resulting in attractive employment opportunities for graduates with these skills.
But for the rest, their education leaves them badly prepared for the jobs that are available. Until this changes, the polarisation in the graduate job market is likely to continue. -
Daddy
Sorry. I disagree with this statement. If anything, the proportion of JCs students qualifying for local university would have now increased, i.e. the chance has improved.
Lesser JCs, lesser chances of entry to local university, lesser local graduates.
Number of undergraduates are determined by the universities whereas the number of JC students is determined by the number of JCs. If anything, with 4 additional JCs, a large number of JC students (report says 25%?) would have missed out. With less vacancies, the lower tier would not make the cut to JCs and is likely to avoid disappointment at the next stage (A levels). A smaller pool with the same number of undergraduate places would have meant an improvement in the number of JC students qualifying for local universities. -
If the late Mr Lee had wanted citizens to fill up vacancies at shipyards, front office receptions, sales assistants, clerical positions and be nurses, then he should not have asked couples to stop at 2 in the 70s…only to import FTs here now. It’s frightening to think of born and bred Singaporeans getting lesser and lesser as time goes by. i’ve always thought he was someone who is a far-sighted person.
now couples are having 1 or at most 2 kids…needless to say, parents would 望子成龙，望女成凤. pardon my proverb but i guess you guys understand what i mean. graduates are not guaranteed a job…but that degree might perhaps open more doors. in a country like singapore which has no natural resources, education is an important asset to have and now the present Prime Minister has to understand why Singapore’s mothers are becoming Tiger Mums. We simply don’t have a choice. If he can persuade his ministers not to send their kids to popular schools (all schools are good schools) nor attend colleges and universities…better still attract poly graduates to enter cabinet to be a minister, maybe Singaporeans might think differently. Hey, our scholars are paper smart. Now there are 2 who are fresh from the army helming a very crucial portfolio - education. Why is there a need to have 2 education ministers? -
In an ST article published last year, it was mentioned that :
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/stricter-rules-for-employment-pass-approval[quote]Mr Lim also produced numbers to correct the perception that foreigners outnumber Singaporeans in professional, managerial, executive and technical jobs. About 79 per cent of jobs with a monthly pay of more than $3,300 are held by Singaporeans, he said, revealing the proportion for the first time.[/quote]In other words, as high as 21% of PMET jobs are held by foreigners. Assuming that all foreign PMETs are degree holders, and they are brought here because we couldn't produce enough graduates with similar qualifications to meet market demands, shouldn't we increase our supply of degree holders to fill the gap, instead of insisting on capping the proportion at 40% of cohorts and then recruit foreign graduates to meet the shortfall? If it's due to a job/skill mismatch, isn't it our educational institutions' job to review their curriculum to minimise such mismatch?
Unlike other countries bestowed with natural resources, all we have here, is human resources. Govt should invest more to produce as many highly qualified locals as possible, enabling us to compete with not just our FTs here, but also with the rest of the world. -
mum_sugoku:
Not so simple.
In other words, as high as 21% of PMET jobs are held by foreigners. Assuming that all foreign PMETs are degree holders, and they are brought here because we couldn't produce enough graduates with similar qualifications to meet market demands, shouldn't we increase our supply of degree holders to fill the gap, instead of insisting on capping the proportion at 40% of cohorts and then recruit foreign graduates to meet the shortfall? If it's due to a job/skill mismatch, isn't it our educational institutions' job to review their curriculum to minimise such mismatch?
21% is the sum total but doesn't mean it is feasible to create a school / course for locals to fill up these numbers.
Some of the expertise could be niche and it's not viable to have a full-time course every year. E.g. there is no veterinary college in school.
Others because of internal controls by companies. E.g. some companies within some industry have > 80% expats / foreigners not because they have to, but because they want to maintain control. -
floppy:
Agree.
Not so simple.mum_sugoku:
In other words, as high as 21% of PMET jobs are held by foreigners. Assuming that all foreign PMETs are degree holders, and they are brought here because we couldn't produce enough graduates with similar qualifications to meet market demands, shouldn't we increase our supply of degree holders to fill the gap, instead of insisting on capping the proportion at 40% of cohorts and then recruit foreign graduates to meet the shortfall? If it's due to a job/skill mismatch, isn't it our educational institutions' job to review their curriculum to minimise such mismatch?
21% is the sum total but doesn't mean it is feasible to create a school / course for locals to fill up these numbers.
Some of the expertise could be niche and it's not viable to have a full-time course every year. E.g. there is no veterinary college in school.
Others because of internal controls by companies. E.g. some companies within some industry have > 80% expats / foreigners not because they have to, but because they want to maintain control.
In that case, for courses which are too niche to be viable here, perhaps govt could offer tuition grants to students who wish to pursue such courses elsewhere? (Not sure if such scheme is already in place though.) -
mum_sugoku:
Grants?
Agree.
In that case, for courses which are too niche to be viable here, perhaps govt could offer tuition grants to students who wish to pursue such courses elsewhere? (Not sure if such scheme is already in place though.)
Got.
They are just better known to us as scholarship
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yuki2010:
To look at Taiwan and conclude that an over abundance of graduates may lead to under-employment and associated social issues may be over-simplistic.hquek:
good article. Thanks for sharing.
Taiwan's higher education landscape is pretty unique; for a total population of 23 mil (4 times that of Singapore), it has some 163 universities (more than 20 times that of Singapore) and 70% of each cohort can expect to be a graduate. Interestingly, among the undergraduates, more than 75% are studying in private universities and apparently, this group suffered the most in terms of higher unemployment.
The pertinent lesson is that given Asians' yearning for learning, should there be insufficient places in public universities, that provide the required intellectual rigour, people will flock to private institutions where quality is less assured and therein lies the risk.
Thus, by drawing the wrong lesson from Taiwan's experience, and consciously capping at 30-40% the cohort participation rate in local public universities, would we end up creating a pool of graduates whose training and skills are mismatched to the industry's needs? -
lee_yl:
To look at Taiwan and conclude that an over abundance of graduates may lead to under-employment and associated social issues may be over-simplistic.yuki2010:
[quote=\"hquek\"]http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1193950/too-many-graduates-devalue-university-taiwan-warns
good article. Thanks for sharing.
Taiwan's higher education landscape is pretty unique; for a total population of 23 mil (4 times that of Singapore), it has some 163 universities (more than 20 times that of Singapore) and 70% of each cohort can expect to be a graduate. Interestingly, among the undergraduates, more than 75% are studying in private universities and apparently, this group suffered the most in terms of higher unemployment.
The pertinent lesson is that given Asians' yearning for learning, should there be insufficient places in public universities, that provide the required intellectual rigour, people will flock to private institutions where quality is less assured and therein lies the risk.
Thus, by drawing the wrong lesson from Taiwan's experience, and consciously capping at 30-40% the cohort participation rate in local public universities, would we end up creating a pool of graduates whose training and skills are mismatched to the industry's needs?[/quote]I doubt if more than 75% are studying in public universities then the unemployment rate in Taiwan will be lower. Another case of \"all universities are good universities but some are better than others\" may happen.
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