EDITORIAL-SG: The Straits Times says- Challenging time for fresh graduates
The Straits Times
The generally bleak economic environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic is inflicting particular pain on fresh graduates. Typically, they emerge from the world of learning to the world of employment full of energy, endeavour and hope. Depending on their subjects of study and their ability to impress potential employers, they snap up jobs with an ease that amazes older employees, many of whom fret about making mid-career changes, to say nothing about those who fear retrenchment and the prospects of climbing up the ladder to where they were earlier. Indeed, the employment rates and salaries drawn by fresh graduates are an essential index of how well the economy and education system are evolving to meet the changing demands of the market.
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Singapore’s high academic standards, the market responsiveness of institutions of higher learning here, and the general vigour of the economy have banished the spectre of graduate unemployment and, worse, unemployability. These ills have been the bane of some countries, and they continue to challenge nations that allow tertiary learning to expand merely to meet public demand instead of matching graduate output with the genuine needs of the economy. The fundamental soundness of Singapore’s approach is not questioned by the challenges facing fresh graduates this year. It is just that the pandemic has mounted such a grievous attack on the economy that short-term calculations have been overshadowed.
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Graduates struggling to find a job now would do well to look beyond their current difficulties, reflect on what their learning really has given them, and prepare themselves mentally for the eventual economic upturn. No matter what their discipline is, tertiary education is an opportunity to both pick up skills and hone mindsets. Skills become obsolete faster than mindsets do. Faced with an unprecedented crisis, young Singaporeans need to draw deeply on what their university years have taught them about life and work, about adjusting legitimate expectations to undeserved downturns, and about staying true to a sense of themselves as the future of the nation.
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In the meantime, offering voluntary service, particularly in the national sectors fighting the coronavirus, would help graduates to enrich their CVs with a display of determination and purpose. Employers are more impressed with what potential employees do when times are bad than in normal times. Fresh graduates are not alone in their fears and hopes. Society at large, which has invested so much in their education, has an interest in ensuring that they contribute to the economic recovery. For example, financial institutions will receive $2,000 every month for each Singaporean fresh graduate or Singaporean worker from other sectors they hire. More such initiatives would help
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