Lianhe Zaobao, 10 September 2017, Employment rate for SUTD’s new graduates increased by 15 percentage points (translation)
The employment rate for the Singapore University of Technology and Design’s (SUTD) current batch of graduates has increased, with around 64% of graduates having found jobs. This is a 15% increase compared to the previous batch.
Established in 2009 and having accepted its first batch in 2012, SUTD celebrated its third graduation ceremony which saw over 300 students graduate, including its first batch of eight PhD students.
SUTD’s president, Professor Thomas Magnanti pointed out that employers continued to be very receptive of SUTD students despite the challenging economy, and the employment rate for this batch of graduates increased by 15%.
The top three sectors that graduates found jobs in were Information and Communication, Financial and Insurance and Public Administration and Defence. Around 25% of graduates also received return job offers.
SUTD is Singapore’s fourth public university and was established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to create a design-based multi-disciplinary education model. SUTD and MIT’s seven-year education collaboration has ended, but the two will still collaborate in various areas of research.
Internship companies have risen from 110 to 700
Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung, guest speaker for the graduation ceremony, reaffirmed SUTD’s performance. He pointed out that SUTD’s application numbers in 2013 was 2,144 and this has risen by 60% to 3,503 in 2017. Research funding has also risen from $82 million to $300 million. Internship companies have also risen from 110 to 700.
SUTD’s specialty is to cultivate innovative design thinking, with employers agreeing and attaching importance to this point, and this is believed to be the main reason for SUTD graduates receiving high starting salaries. Based on the joint annual graduate employment survey, last year’s SUTD graduates received median monthly starting salaries of $3,650, which is the highest amongst graduates from all local universities. Over 90% of graduates found jobs within six months.
Ong Ye Kung also reminded the graduates to find out their own unique value proposition, and to accumulate experience to deepen their professional skills. He said: “Many young working adults mistakenly think that they need a portfolio of jobs. I’ve heard of many young people jumping from one job to another every two to three years, thinking that they will become more employable. This might be a big mistake.”
“Some people jump from one job to another because they are being headhunted, and that is because they have special skills that the market knows about. If you are not in that position but simply change jobs frequently for the sake of doing so, you will make your CV look bad. Most employers do not like job hoppers, because they have no confidence that they can invest in your skills and capabilities.”
He emphasised that jobseekers should be clear of their unique selling point, to identify it and work on it by staying and learning on the job. “But this is not about having a portfolio of jobs, but being able to demonstrate that all your learning and working experience adds up to a deep, specialised and valued skill.” Otherwise, you are like an Avenger with no super power, and will be out of the team.
Current batch graduate, Tan Shun Yu (22 years old) will start work at oil company BP Singapore, where she did her internship at last year. She studied information systems technology and design, and during her internship, she helped the company build a push notification function for their apps, to facilitate traders to track real-time oil prices, etc.
During the interview, she said: “I received this assignment during my internship and learnt a lot from it – from the application of skills I learnt in school, such as coding, to having to self-learn some new knowledge. I felt a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that the finished product was being used by the company and glad that I received a return job offer.”
Another graduate who studied Engineering Product Development, Tang Li Ren (24 years old), will be joining GovTech. He hopes to use technology to improve people’s lives, especially in the area of healthcare.
After selecting the module on Global Health Technologies, he developed a strong interest in healthcare engineering. He hopes to first gain sufficient experience in the workplace and in future, start up his own company to develop practical healthcare products for the needy and less fortunate.