Fewer young working adults plan to study further
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SINGAPORE: Fewer young working adults appear keen to pursue further education at a time when the economy is doing well.
According to the 2011 JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey, 69.6 per cent of young working adults intend to pursue further education, the lowest percentage since the survey started in 2009.
The number was 71.4 per cent in 2010 and 79.3 per cent in 2009.
CEO of JobsCentral Group, Mr Lim Der Shing, attributed the decline to the current economic situation in Singapore of strong performance and near-full employment.
He said young working adults feel more secure in their jobs and hence feel less of a need to upgrade right now.
He believes the trend of learning and upgrading remains intact and will reassert itself if there's a recession or downturn in 2012.
The survey also found that 70.3 per cent of of respondents expect pay increases of at least 25 per cent after they have obtained their next level of academic qualifications.
One in five respondents, or 22.8 per cent, indicated that they expect to be paid 50 per cent more.
"For most employers, pay raise decisions are usually made based on job performance improvement, increased job responsibility or increased scope of work.
"As such, professionals who expect pay raises simply because of higher educational qualifications may find themselves disappointed if they do not take on more work and responsibility at the same time," said Mr Lim.
A total of 3,413 respondents took part in the survey, which was conducted online from August to September this year.
The survey respondents were mostly young working adults aged 21-40 years.
Another noteworthy finding is that recognition of certification is the most important factor for them when choosing the institution to study in.
It's followed by reputation, course fees, syllabus, lecturers and facilitators.
Business Studies is the most popular course (42.1 per cent), followed by project management, communications/media, engineering and hospitality/tourism.
- CNA/ck -
For my thinking, I think that probably to upgrade yourself is expensive with all the lessons fees and stuff. So you know economy is not very good so yeah, people don't have money to fork out...
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got money no time
got time no money
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there are many doctorates around with meagre pay....
people who are making money get the biggest or the whole pie.....more people are switching from engineering or research careers to businesses, banking and finance....
supporting roles will hardly get recognized....its a fact and that will remain as solid fact...
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Actually to live in Singapore you must be rich somehow because with the economy it is difficult but the fact is everyone is poor. I have a relative who move to Malaysia to live since he has the money so he migrate. Sigh, I miss him :(
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how much investments in terms of time and money and getting bank loans to put in all the paper certs u need to get recognized and be rewarded at the end of the day?
i emphathize those who doggedly believe that with hard work at only what they do best without networking and academic prowess, they will get much more than others....many times, these earnest and ambitious people got nothing than they expected but great dissapointments in life and no powerful mountain backups....from private sectors to public ones....seen it all....
no doubt due diligence is still prized.....if u were to notice.....many powerful and wealthy men could rule over you with only a basic degree, diploma....or none at all....
studying and mastering of opportunities and timing is crucially needed to reach the peak...
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meritocracy?
its only an advertisement
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Oh for my thinking I believe if you have the determination, nothing is impossible. Even for my cousin, a simple engineering degree made him a businessman. People will laugh at him but yeah this shows he can do multiple jobs.
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with the economic downturn its best to upgrade but if you kena retrench then its a different ball game.
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maybe its a turning point. People are finally starting to realise that qualification=/=pay.
look at US, EU etc. their workforce are highly educated, many with Masters. Yet, it doesnt seem to create much employment opportunities for them, looking at the state of the ongoing financial crisis.
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Qualification affects your starting pay, but it is the performance of the person which affects your promotion. Like me I only got a simple bachelor engineering degree, but I can work in Exxon and my pay is considered high to Singapore companies.
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study so much for what?
when you reach your 40s there is a good chance you will be replaced by 'talents'.
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Originally posted by LuxuryBrass:
Qualification affects your starting pay, but it is the performance of the person which affects your promotion. Like me I only got a simple bachelor engineering degree, but I can work in Exxon and my pay is considered high to Singapore companies.
your pay is also dependent on the sector you are working in. generally, petrochem companies pay more than lets say manufacturing companies.
Yes, qualifications affects your starting pay, I'm not going to deny that. however, it only applies to bachelor and below. Masters and PHDs have little effect on one's pay level.
and with the influx of FT changing the labour market, the concept of high qualification = high pay is becoming increasingly obsolete.
You can see foreign degree holders working in a wide spectrum of jobs, ranging from the lowly technician, retail sales, customer svc, to engineers, financial consultants, doctors etc. Qualification is meaningless, if there are people out there willing to drastically undercut you on the basis of salary.
Let's just take a simple ferry ride to batam. I saw job advertisement for the simple post of starbucks baristas. Looking for university graduates, not older than 25, monthly pay of approx. S$280. Outlet manager, cannot be older than 35. $350/mnth.
And that's starbucks. Imagine what's the pay like for the less well-known companies.
Maybe their university are lousy, but i believe that being uni grads, they are more than competent for most jobs available in singapore, excluding the really high-tech occupations.
And I believe that these people, are more than willing to accept any jobs that offers higher pay. Simply by working as a junior admin assistant in spore, they can easily quadruple their pay, and drastically improve their family's financial standing. We have heard of maids and foreign labourers, saving enough money to the point that they can afford to construct beautiful houses back in their hometowns. And these workers are usually lowly-educated, lowly paid, $500/mth or less.
imagine what degree holders can achieve by working in singapore.
When you have so many qualified desperate young people, just 30minutes away from singapore, we can't help but wonder. What will happen had we just loosen immigration restriction a little?
And the world is full of such desperate people, and many are actually well educated, or at least educated enough to compete with workers of the developed world.
The West is slowly coming to realise that Efficiency simply cannot compete with Cheapness. C comes before E.
They will never, ever, be able to create jobs that pay as well, with cheaper overseas labour available for every position imaginable.
And with declining individual income, the economies of the West is doomed to shrink, and their debt crisis will only become more and more severe, as they find it harder and harder to repay their debts.
The EU is bound to disintegrate, and the US is next on the list.
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Originally posted by dragg:
study so much for what?
when you reach your 40s there is a good chance you will be replaced by 'talents'.
Study so that you can be cheaper better and faster.
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Singapore needs more cheap labour from 3rd world countries.
Not a skilled labour force.
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Anyway, most of the jobs being created in sg now don't need much education.
Cleaning toilet jobs, sales assistant jobs, wiping table jobs.
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
Singapore needs more cheap labour from 3rd world countries.
Not a skilled labour force.
Correction: we do need a skilled labour force.
But its a cheap skilled labour force from 3rd world countries. haha :)
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Originally posted by deathmaster:
Correction: we do need a skilled labour force.
But its a cheap skilled labour force from 3rd world countries. haha :)
I don't think they need skilled workers.
Most jobs being created now are low end, low value added jobs.
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Ok I am also not denying that that qualification doesn't equals to pay. Look, if you can't keep up with the current technology (especially my job which deals with chemicals), you are as good as fired. Just like now, there are a number of old people who doesn't know how to use a computer, but if you take lessons and courses they can use and this is an example of keeping up with technology.
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Originally posted by charlize:
Study so that you can be cheaper better and faster.
and poorer.
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Useless one la...study so much for what...they will easily replace you with foreign 'talent' who comes in cheaper.
Assuming you already have a degree/honours, there's little incentive to go further compared to poly upgrade to degree.
You might as well focus on performing at work.
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Originally posted by HyuugaNeji:
Useless one la...study so much for what...they will easily replace you with foreign 'talent' who comes in cheaper.
Assuming you already have a degree/honours, there's little incentive to go further compared to poly upgrade to degree.
You might as well focus on performing at work.
i agree.
your certificate is valuable only if its rare and needed in that specific field. its so saturated now coz people just study and upgrade blindly.
paper chasers!!
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Originally posted by HyuugaNeji:
Useless one la...study so much for what...they will easily replace you with foreign 'talent' who comes in cheaper.
Assuming you already have a degree/honours, there's little incentive to go further compared to poly upgrade to degree.
You might as well focus on performing at work.
Once you have the paper, next you need the connections.
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Like you said, cheap laborers. Yes, they may replace you with cheap laborers, but remember, that can only happen in jobs that don't require so much thinking or 'brains'. Think again, can a china man deal with chemicals or cars? Can they even understand English? Remember the bus route incident?
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Originally posted by LuxuryBrass:
Like you said, cheap laborers. Yes, they may replace you with cheap laborers, but remember, that can only happen in jobs that don’t require so much thinking or ‘brains’. Think again, can a china man deal with chemicals or cars? Can they even understand English? Remember the bus route incident?
luxury brass.....whose clone are you.