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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - 154th Editorial wants FTs curtailed !!! </TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF noWrap align=right width="1%">From: </TD><TD class=msgFname noWrap width="68%">kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">4:42 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 9) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>10229.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Being practical about graduate joblessness
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->GRADUATES seeking their first jobs this year and likely the next are staring at bleak prospects. This is what the numbers say. The carry-over into this year of the 2008 unemployed has about 15,000 people who hold degrees. Mid-year, there will be a flood of 12,000 anxious new graduates looking for work. The polytechnics and specialist institutes like LaSalle College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts will add thousands of diploma and some degree graduates to the queue. Not to be overlooked are the Singaporeans coming home each year with degrees obtained abroad. The output is not small, considering the many who do not get admitted to local universities and those who choose to have a foreign education.
What the numbers do not compute are individuals' expectations, job fit and most new graduates' lack of knowledge of the working world and what it expects of them. Government agencies are working on ideas to absorb as many graduates as possible through a variety of means, including subsidised internships. If they come to pass, these will tackle only the current set of placement problems. Not much has been said about what more employers could do in collaborating with tertiary institutions on work attachments for undergraduates to improve employability and test job fit. As graduate unemployment is recurrent in nature, adjustments have to be considered to the status quo.
First-time applicants' inexperience is often cited by employers for the low uptake. But except for notables like banks, law and accounting firms, internships and attachments are not institutionalised as not all employers like the idea. They should be, to give students a foretaste of working life as well as to reduce firms' output loss to new hires' adjustment time. On their own, undergrads should seek out part-time work during vacations, even on weekends. Openings are usually available in shops, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, petrol stations, cinema chains, travel firms and the like. The civil service would be a voluminous recruiter if the Government would open it fully for short attachments. Overseas experience has it that young people who have shown initiative doing odd jobs are the most employable. The reality here is that precious sons and daughters will be persuaded to join their parents on annual family trips abroad. An attitude change is called for. An immediate remedial action to be taken is to curtail severely the issue of not just S passes but also employment passes to youngish foreigners with little or minimal experience, until the job situation is better. Favouring Singaporeans to help them over the present hump is not a policy change; it would be the right thing to do.
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->GRADUATES seeking their first jobs this year and likely the next are staring at bleak prospects. This is what the numbers say. The carry-over into this year of the 2008 unemployed has about 15,000 people who hold degrees. Mid-year, there will be a flood of 12,000 anxious new graduates looking for work. The polytechnics and specialist institutes like LaSalle College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts will add thousands of diploma and some degree graduates to the queue. Not to be overlooked are the Singaporeans coming home each year with degrees obtained abroad. The output is not small, considering the many who do not get admitted to local universities and those who choose to have a foreign education.
What the numbers do not compute are individuals' expectations, job fit and most new graduates' lack of knowledge of the working world and what it expects of them. Government agencies are working on ideas to absorb as many graduates as possible through a variety of means, including subsidised internships. If they come to pass, these will tackle only the current set of placement problems. Not much has been said about what more employers could do in collaborating with tertiary institutions on work attachments for undergraduates to improve employability and test job fit. As graduate unemployment is recurrent in nature, adjustments have to be considered to the status quo.
First-time applicants' inexperience is often cited by employers for the low uptake. But except for notables like banks, law and accounting firms, internships and attachments are not institutionalised as not all employers like the idea. They should be, to give students a foretaste of working life as well as to reduce firms' output loss to new hires' adjustment time. On their own, undergrads should seek out part-time work during vacations, even on weekends. Openings are usually available in shops, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, petrol stations, cinema chains, travel firms and the like. The civil service would be a voluminous recruiter if the Government would open it fully for short attachments. Overseas experience has it that young people who have shown initiative doing odd jobs are the most employable. The reality here is that precious sons and daughters will be persuaded to join their parents on annual family trips abroad. An attitude change is called for. An immediate remedial action to be taken is to curtail severely the issue of not just S passes but also employment passes to youngish foreigners with little or minimal experience, until the job situation is better. Favouring Singaporeans to help them over the present hump is not a policy change; it would be the right thing to do.
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