The most dangerous notions about education come from the people who have the most influence over the future of our youth yet have the least idea ...
SINGAPORE: “By the time you graduate, everything you will have learnt will already be obsolete.” said the CFO of a major global bank to the audience of University students at a career workshop I was hosting.
Mental health conditions like depression and anxiety were rising rapidly. More often than not, the root cause was them doing a course because of parental expectations rather than pursuing their own interests.My clinical psychologist partner Greg too hears similar stories from clients further down the line in their careers, who may seem successful on the outside, but feel like they’re struggling with old emotional baggage and in finding meaning from life and work.
As a senior engineer from a leading tech firm said to me: “If I hire 100 computing science students in Singapore, I normally get just one answer to a problem. They’re trained to see the problem in the same way. But if I hire 10 humanities students, I get 10 whole new perspectives. Nowadays, half of Singapore has a university degree. The piece of paper doesn’t do much to separate your child from thousands of others with the same piece of paper.
Also, don’t limit your thinking to universities but think further upstream. With society’s chase after an Integrated Programme, the reality is a polytechnic education can be a desirable feeder system into university or work life but is often overlooked.Polys tend to work very closely with employers to devise highly practical curricula and training that maps on to industry needs. The poly education also exposes students early to real-life work through internships and applied learning.
The problem is, starting salaries are highly meaningless metrics, and no predictor of continued long term success. Many design students start off with low salaries and then come back to visit us as millionaires after starting their own companies. The most successful individuals, who are heralded as role models, chose starting their own company over a stable entry wage.
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