Category: Singapuraku

Under-Employed NUS Sociology Graduate Earns $1200 As Part-Time Accounts Executive

Hi Gilbert,

I came across your website while googling people who are in my plight and would like to share my thoughts and experiences with you.

I have a diploma in accounting (merit) from a local polytechnic. After NS, I was rejected by NUS for a place in Business School but was offered sociology instead. Because of my interests in business, I did a minor in management and realised to my shock that 30% of those in business school were foreigners – from Vietnam, China, Malaysia who don’t even understand business terms!

After a year, I lost interest in my course and just breezed through and scraped by with a basic pass degree. Although I admit this is my fault for not working hard and securing a comfortable government job like a few of my peers, but the whole idea is that the private sector is a completely different ball game.

When I graduated, I sent in hundreds of resume but only got two interviews. The reality for fresh graduates is that unless you have a law, accountancy or medicine degree where you have secured a training contract of some sort then you are safe. Civil service aside, the private sector is very unwilling to take on someone with a general degree with no experience.

In fact, I have been unemployed for 2 years after graduating and helping my mother in her restaurant. This has made me feel very inferior towards the S-pass holders from third-world countries! Eventually, I decided to put my diploma as my highest educational level and secured a part-time job as an accounts executive earning $1,200 a month with a local SME working about 20 hours a week.

I can tell you for a fact that the graduate employment surveys are bullshit! It is done on a voluntarily basis and only those who have secured jobs would have sufficient information to fill such as basic salary and so on. The reality is that the unemployed like myself are too ashamed to fill up the survey.

Even for those who do, what does 15% of FASS (faculty of arts and social science) graduates who are unemployed SIX months after graduation is no joke, considering the amount they spent on their education. I would personally estimate that around 30% of my peers are unemployed and another 30% are like me underemployed doing jobs like estate and insurance agents which do not even require degrees!

In my free time, I am also studying for an ACCA to enhance my future prospects after seeing how general degrees have no value in the job market while there are so many foreigners competing with us Singaporeans who have served NS.

Understand that you are busy with the elections now, but I would love to meet you after so that I am able to get some counselling from you. I find myself better off than most of the stories in our website and thank God for that, but I seriously hope that you can speak up for more of us.

Thanks,

FJ

Source: www.transitioning.org

October 1, 2015
NUS Is Asia’s Top University, NTU 55th in Tmes Higher Education World University Rankings

SINGAPORE – The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have both made a good showing in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings published today (Oct 1).

As the only Asian university in the global top 30, NUS was crowned Asia’s top university – a first for NUS in the ranking’s 12-year history – while NTU scaled six spots to rank 55th globally in the 2015-2016 rankings.

The rankings are based on 13 separate performance indicators to reflect a university’s strengths in five areas: Teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. It draws on data from 1,100 institutions, 11 million academic papers and more than 11,000 academic surveys to list the top 800 universities across 70 countries.

In the latest rankings, NUS was at 26th spot globally. In the previous 2014-2015 edition of the rankings, NUS ranked a spot higher at 25th place and was the second best Asian university, behind the University of Tokyo (ranked 23rd globally).

In the latest list, the University of Tokyo dropped to 43rd place, just behind China’s Peking University (ranked 42nd). After NUS, these were the next highest ranked Asian institutions.

Screenshot showing the scores of NTU and NUS in five areas.

Within the five areas that the universities were scored, NUS was placed in the top 10 in the area of international outlook, which considers a university’s international-to-domestic-student ratio, international-to-domestic-staff ratio and international collaboration. In the areas of teaching (the learning environment) and research (volume, income and reputation), NUS was in the top 30.

NTU was in the top 20 in the areas of industry income – an indicator for knowledge transfer activity – and international outlook. Neither university placed in the top 30 in the area of citations, which is the research influence indicator that looks at universities’ role in spreading new knowledge and ideas.

NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said: “We are pleased that NUS has been placed among the leading universities in the world and top in Asia.” He credited the university’s achievements to “strong support from the government, as well as commitment to excellence by our faculty, staff and students”.

Pointing to NTU’s leap to 13th place from 39th in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings a fortnight ago, NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson said: “Although the two indices use different methodologies, they show one common trend – that NTU is on a rapid upward trajectory.” At the 55th spot, NTU has leaped 114 places on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings over the last four years.

“We will continue to work hard to be a leading global university that is academically and intellectually rigorous and vibrant, and one that serves the needs of Singapore and Singaporeans,” said Prof Andersson. Still, he noted that while rankings are useful for young universities like NTU as it allows them to be benchmarked with the best, “rankings do not shape our strategies”. “We are focused on our fundamentals – to create a world-class environment for learning, teaching and research,” he said.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ editor Phil Baty said NTU’s “consistent rise is particularly impressive” given the 13 rigorous performance indicators used for the rankings. “Singapore is one of the most exciting countries in global higher education at the moment, and NTU is at the heart of that,” he added.

On NUS, Mr Baty said its new position as Asia’s top university and among the very best of the world’s elite research universities is “thoroughly deserved”. “NUS has proven its strength in depth against the highest global standards,” he said.

Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Source: www.todayonline.com

October 1, 2015
My First Skool And PCF To Raise Fees

SINGAPORE – Parents with children in pre- schools run by NTUC’s My First Skool or the PAP Community Foundation (PCF), the two largest pre-school operators here, will most likely have to pay more next year.

Both will raise monthly childcare fees at most of their centres next year, by an average of $34 for My First Skool and $28 for PCF.

For infant care, on average, My First Skool will raise fees by $14, while PCF will charge $48 more.

Both told The Straits Times that the fee increases are needed to improve the quality of their programmes, and to cope with soaring operating costs such as higher staff salaries. They had raised fees at most of their centres just this year.

My First Skool and PCF, both appointed as anchor operators catering to the mass market, also reiterated that the new fees will generally still be lower than the maximum allowed for such operators.

Anchor operators get government grants but have to keep fees affordable. They cannot charge more than $720 a month for full-day childcare and $1,275 a month for full-day infant care, before goods and services tax. This is below the industry median fee of $900 and $1,343 for the two services.

The other three anchor operators here are E-bridge Pre-School, Skool4kidz and MY World Preschool. The first two will not charge more next year as they have already hit the maximum allowed. MY World will raise fees at four of its 25 centres, as these were newly transferred from another operator this year.

Fee increases usually start in January but, for My First Skool and PCF, these will kick in later in the year.

My First Skool, which informed parents yesterday, said the increase will start from April, to give parents “an ample six-month notice”.

It will charge more at 113 of its 120 centres, but these centres will have no further fee increase in 2017.

PCF told parents about its fee hike earlier last month, saying fees will increase in January. But it made a U-turn last Friday and said that “on a goodwill basis”, it will give all Singaporean and permanent resident children a rebate from January to June, so that the new fees take effect only from July.

PCF, the largest operator here, will raise fees at 139 of its 154 childcare centres and 209 of its 215 kindergartens. Fees for its kindergarten services will increase by an average of $16. My First Skool does not offer kindergarten services.

The fee hikes were approved by the Early Childhood Development Agency, which oversees the sector. A spokesman said: “Pre-school operators raise fees from time to time to ensure sustainability as operating costs rise, and to recruit and retain teachers to deliver quality programmes.”

A spokesman for My First Skool agreed, noting that teacher salaries have increased by an average of 5 to 6 per cent each year, over the last three years.

A PCF spokesman said: “Retaining well-qualified staff has been increasingly challenging in recent years, given the keen competition for limited manpower resources in the industry.”

Both operators said there are special funds for low-income families, on top of government subsidies. All working mothers get a subsidy of $300 a month for full-day childcare, or $600 for full-day infant care. Those with a household income of not more than $7,500 a month get a second subsidy.

Customer service officer Lee Mei Ling, 34, who has two children in PCF centres, said: “PCF’s fees are already lower than many other operators’, so I think it’s okay. Teachers should be paid well for their work. But it’d be good if the income cap for the second subsidy could be raised. We have three children and earn just a few hundred dollars more than the income cap.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

October 1, 2015
Singapore’s Population Growth At Slowest In More Than A Decade

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s population rose 1.2 percent over the past year, the slowest in more than a decade, as it tried to reduce numbers of foreign workers, while long-standing efforts to encourage citizens to have more children bore some fruit.

The total population stood at 5.54 million as of June 2015, according to data released on Wednesday, including 3.38 million citizens.

The citizen population continued to age, with 13.1 percent 65 or older, compared with 12.4 percent last year, due to slowing fertility rates and increasing life expectancy.

Singapore has for years tried to get its well-educated and well-off citizens to have more children, with little success but births in 2014 rose 7 percent, to 33,193, close to the 2012 level, which was the highest in a decade.

Increasing numbers of foreign workers led to grumbling about high property prices and crowded public transport and in response, the government has been curbing numbers, exacerbating a labour crunch, particularly in manufacturing, services and construction.

Businesses faced a tight labour market but help was at hand, the government said in its 2015 population report.

“The government will support businesses to shift towards skills- and capital-intensive ways to grow, so that businesses can continue to grow and succeed here, to create quality jobs for Singaporeans,” the government said.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

October 1, 2015
Questioned By Policemen, Armed, Tattooed Men Turned Violent On Policemen

About 10 tattooed men were interrogated by policemen in the Outram Park area.

According to Shin Min Daily News, knives were found when the police searched them and the men turned violent. Nine police cars arrived at the scene and three men were arrested.

This happened on Sep 26, 8am, just outside Block 5 Jalan Minyak’s coffeeshop.

Mr Tan, a 61-year-old resident of the area, recalled the 10 men sitting at a round table while being completely surrounded by cops.

Eyewitnesses told the Shin Min news reporters that one muscled bald man was pinned onto the table by cops when he resisted arrest.

Four to five policemen then cuffed his hands behind his back and pressed his chest to the round table. They then searched him and brought him away.

According to the Chinese newspaper, about 10 men and 1 woman from the age of 20 to 40 were questioned by the police. Most of them were tattooed, and one of them had tattoos all over his face.

A resident, 57-year-old housewife Madam Zhen, recognised some of them to be her neighbours.

The police confirmed that they received a tip-off at 8.21am that morning, and after conducting a search on a group of men, three of them possessed dangerous weapons like knives.

The men also provided fake documents and turned violent on the cops.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Source: http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg

October 1, 2015