Powered by glolg
Display Preferences Most Recent Entries Chatterbox Blog Links Site Statistics Category Tags About Me, Myself and Gilbert XML RSS Feed
Saturday, Sep 13, 2014 - 23:23 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Mai Tak Chek Lah

iPhone released - this says it all.

Experienced an amusing cab ride on Friday, where the driver (according to himself, a full-time property agent) was involved in a deal over the hands-free set through much of the travel duration. Now, the do-it-all freelancer is almost a cliché here (particularly the cabbie/property agent/insurance agent combo, as parodied in That Girl in Pinafore), but maybe it's not too much to ask for it to be kept to one job at a time?

It's not looking too great in the electronics sector either, with Broadcom gone after years of tax incentive farming. Fortunately, there should be some openings for software developers, as online gambling looks set to be officially banned... other than for entities that are not-for-profit, locally-based, have an established history, and occasionally throw some dosh to charities. Gee, what company does that look like? Frankly, I'm not sure how they are going to enforce this.

Realistically, the net effect would be that much of the current online business would simply be driven underground, with the less-sophisticated portion captured by Singapore Pools (and, hence, the Ministry of Finance). Actually, this move could be seen as further reflection of the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in the administration - if they're so concerned about money leaking out to Betfair, why don't they simply build Singapore Pools into a major international "gaming" portal, instead of hunkering down and bullying a captive audience with bad odds? It's not like the government have any qualms about getting their cut off foreign gamblers, what with our two megacasinos...


"Knowledge Economy", sans Knowledge

But yeah, as brought up last week - according to the government, degrees aren't required for a bright future now! While this pronouncement (warning?) is not totally without merit, it was not received all that enthusiastically, seeing as how the relevant minister had to clarify that qualifications would still matter - just that, don't get your hopes too high, in line with a general thrust by the incumbents towards damping "higher aspirations".


If we're lowering expectations, might as well go the whole hog
(Source: smbc-comics.com)


In their defence, this policy doesn't appear to be as much of a panicked shift as others have been - the plan has been to allow up to 40% of each cohort to obtain a degree in 2020, resulting in a projected two-thirds of Singaporeans being PMETs in 2030 (up from 52% in 2012). The problem, however, is that PMETs are already beginning to get reemployed at a worse rate than less academically-qualified (and lower-paid) workers, a trend that is likely expected to continue.

Seen in this way, the government is being responsible - why burn tens of (and, in some subjects, even hundreds of) thousands for that sheepskin, if one has little prospect of earning it back? China's graduate glut was specifically mentioned, as was the situation in the U.S., where the connection between a liberal arts degree and a ton of undischargable debt has been a long-running joke.

However, as happens distressingly often nowadays, I find the incumbents unconvincing, and shall elaborate as to why. I divide the discussion into three parts: why study, why at least some citizens are riled up, and why the incumbents may be mistaken.


Why Study?


Thus begins the latest chapter of incumbent advice
(Source: huffingtonpost.com)


Starting from the demand side - why are people eager to pay a lot, for the privilege of spending years working towards a piece of paper? Is it because of a love of learning, and a desire to advance the flame of knowledge for the good of humankind? Well, let's be honest here - in large part, after the gushing admissions essay - nope. If graduates (and honours classes, recently rejigged) weren't being paid more, coupled with better access to highly-desired jobs, I daresay campuses here would be rather more thinly populated than the usual. This is supported by accelerated degree courses, with the entire experience packed into as little as a year, rising in popularity.

This topic has been at the centre of a small tete-a-tete on The State's Times forums, between supporters of more focused, vocational university studies ("No-frills, core focus, job-ready"), and those in favour of classical holistic scholarship ("Keep frills, broad-based"). In my opinion, though, there isn't all that much to debate about, since "breadth" here tends to consist of five modules, of which four can usually be fulfilled in accordance with one's strengths (Introduction to Computing, anyone?). Indeed, one can't dodge Singapore Studies, but they can always S/U it. The difference, then, would be one semester and perhaps some lost CAP points (ok, S$200 in starting pay)

[N.B. A couple more comments on the letters: at the junior college level, there have not been pure arts or science streams for some time (though I guess less-literary students would still lean towards more quantitative "arts" subjects, like economics); on the other hand, the likes of Gates and Zuckerberg were again held up as "success stories without a degree". Being able to enter Harvard in the first place, it appears, was entirely incidental to their abilities]

That said, there has been precious little evidence that the authorities ever truly cared about that sort of knowledge. As a reddit user put it, in response to yet another acclaimed-but-alternative documentary being banned for "national security" reasons: "Honestly, I don't know how (a knowledge economy) can be achieved (like this) - to have citizens capable of independent thought at work but incapable of it outside of it." Case in point: it's the Internet's fault for spreading information rapidly, before we can "massage" it. Like that how can?!


Why People Dulan?

Background: This new degree-free direction is being heavily sold by the usual mainstream media cheerleading squad - some* poly and ITE grads (who have made it) have been featured heavily after impressing the Prime Minister... with nary a whisper about the median ITE grad pulling in but S$1350 a month. After that, following the no-degree lovefest, the PM was insensitively asked about the near-complete absence of no-degree holders among the incumbents' many representatives in Parliament.

[*Further fighting anectode with anectode, EDMW-ers have gone as far as to follow up on an early piece of propaganda with respect to non-degreed prospects. It's a bit sad, really.]

Displaying extraordinarily intimate offhand knowledge of his MPs' CVs (since there is no way the forum questions were pre-rigged), our PM managed three names (out of 81), two of whom turned out to have obtained degrees long before becoming MPs, and the third of whom got his four-year diploma from an Australian technical college, now considered a university. It possibly occurring to him at this point that 0% to 3.7% was not actually a very impressive track record, he hastened to add that MPs were not selected based on credentials, but on whether they were "good people", which seems to have... unfortunate implications about non-degree holders, going by probability.

Those with slightly longer memories would perhaps recall that this is coming from a party that had, not all that long ago, publicly denigrated an opposition candidate for his not-very-stellar O levels results (he won anyway), and be justly suspicious as to whether this is just yet more expedient pandering, and if we are going to see a repeat of the last time the incumbents tried to target a demographic.

Oh, and remember the last decade's life sciences hype, which ended with insufficient test-tube cleaning jobs, and the huge IT push before that, among other "encouragements" from our all-knowing incumbents? Given past history, it would not be out of character for our adorable men in white to realise, ten years down the road, that hey, we needed graduates after all (like the time we had to bring in a thousand doctors)! Oh, you were one of those who believed the last batch of ministers, about not needing a degree? Sorry man, sucks to be you.


Message received by some
(Source: Demon-cratic Singapore)


That would have been bad enough by itself, but what's adding fuel to the fire is the persistent perception in certain quarters that foreigners have it better throughout; most foreign students, to begin with, are apparently on scholarships, compared to just 6% of locals - and their results aren't even that much better. Not only that, it is muttered, why are the numbers of local grads being restricted, only to truck in foreign grads, some of whom possess slightly dubious credentials? Ok, the standard answer is that they are being brought into specific industries with manpower shortages, but more than one irate netizen has suggested that wage undercutting has been a big incentive.


Why Too Many Grads?

Indeed, looking at how actively the government has been sourcing foreign professionals to live and work here in such great numbers, it is not unreasonable to question if we, in fact, have too many local graduates (quote: "I've created all these [PMET] jobs, I don't have Singaporeans for all of them.") Something doesn't quite seem to add up.

The president of NTU for one has expressed his disagreement, and I shall offer another, very simple, reason. As mentioned, we're pushing towards 40% having a degree by 2020 (with the actual percentage of the workforce being degreed lagging somewhat) - is this proportion actually exceptional?

Some stats: in the US as a whole, some 42% of adults have at least an associate's degree, today. China is said to have targeted 195 million graduates by 2020, which comes to about 20% following the same metrics. Carrying on, Canada's tertiary education rate is currently 51%, Japan 45%, with the OECD average at 32% - and increasing. It's rather telling that the tertiary education rate is fairly well correlated with national prosperity, with the exception of Germany, but even then it's near 28%. Still, we could be said to be there or thereabouts, if perhaps slightly conservative... right?

But wait! These figures are for entire countries! That 40-odd percent of Americans with degrees, includes everywhere - farm holdings in the plains of Nebraska, cattle ranches in Texas, homely small towns in Arkansas, industrial ghettos in the Rust Belt. Much the same goes for the other nations listed. By nature, as our ministers have taken pains to emphasize whenever the issue of prices comes up - we are more of a city. Should we not, then, be compared against major cities instead?

That sounds fair. Okay, since we've embarked on so many tech hub quests, maybe Palo Alto would make a good benchmark. Dum dum dum...

88% of adults in Palo Alto have degrees.

Fine, that's probably not fair, Palo Alto's not that large. Let's consider the largest metro areas instead. Whoops, San Jose, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle all are on around 50% (and rising), with New York, Chicago and Atlanta closer to 45%. Hong Kong, our perennial rivals, check in at 29%, which is however an underestimate given that this figure includes teenagers. Recall, we're currently barely at 25%, which is starkly reflected in our World Bank's Knowledge Economy Index score.

...seriously, too many grads?

Now, it may be true that there's a glut in many places - Shanghai's 84% is almost certainly overkill - but given what Singapore is supposedly meant to be - innovation, knowledge, tech, finance, cutting-edge research, up the value chain, global city, blah blah blah - it is very difficult to see how a future graduate proportion of not even 40% is too much to take, especially when compared with our direct competitors. Or, does the government know something we don't? Surely, the unworthy murmurs floating around about an uneducated populace being easier to control can't be true?


Why They So Like That?

And to sum it up: personally, I wonder what the entire point of devoting so much of the latest National Day Rally message to, essentially, "don't study" is, all the more as it has historically been a huge career limiter, with little indication that this will change substantially and permanently, token gestures aside (e.g. non-graduate teachers can now be placed on the graduate pay scale... if they are outstanding). Are the government actually going to ramp the number of university places back down? Not that I heard any indication of that. So why the talk?

In any case, I don't think this call will be heeded, given the longstanding antipathy towards manual labour, even if skilled, that this society has. This, in turn, is in large part due to our economics, as shaped by our dear incumbents. For example, a brickie (no degree required) can earn over S$6000 a month in the UK, a country with a comparable cost of living, while our equivalent would be lucky to make a sixth of that. There's been a lot of gushing over the German apprenticeship system, and I think it'll take off here... once our ITEs pay trainees US$1000 a month during their schooling, and start them off at US$3000 a month. Not having a degree sure looks good this way!

And, consider the golden rule, independently brought up on various forums about this latest bright idea: will our honourable ministers and MPs thereby lead by example in embracing the new paradigm, and encourage their kids to not get a degree?

TL;DR: Money talks, bullshit walks. It's not looking good.


(Source: imgur.com)




comments (0) - email - share - print - direct link
trackbacks (9) - trackback url


Next: H.L. Ham Update


Related Posts:
Pure Punditry
Our Hamster Conversation
Mega Bonus Post
To Complete
Riding The Current
Back to top




9 trackbacks

Trackback by jura.gorod-irk.ru
jura.gorod-irk.ru - [bert's blog]


September 23, 2014 - 05:34 SGT     
Trackback by bombasse porn
bombasse porn - [bert's blog]


September 25, 2014 - 16:06 SGT     
Trackback by низкокалорийная диета
низкокалорийная диета - [bert's blog]


October 4, 2014 - 17:27 SGT     
Trackback by Reviews on Secrets to Dog Training by Daniel Steve...
Reviews on Secrets to Dog Training by Daniel Steve... - [bert's blog]


October 8, 2014 - 18:03 SGT     
Trackback by Skinny Fiber Pills
Skinny Fiber Pills - [bert's blog]


October 15, 2014 - 15:48 SGT     
Trackback by ปลวก
ปลวก - [bert's blog]


October 15, 2014 - 23:00 SGT     
Trackback by super real
super real - [bert's blog]


October 17, 2014 - 11:12 SGT     
Trackback by computer repairs wimbledon area
computer repairs wimbledon area - [bert's blog]


October 17, 2014 - 16:39 SGT     
Trackback by Belinda Broido
Belinda Broido - [bert's blog]


October 19, 2014 - 05:51 SGT     

Copyright © 2006-2025 GLYS. All Rights Reserved.