Preparing Youths for the Workplace

Jessie Ee, Agnes Chang

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9789814689489
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

This book is to expose youths, educators, counsellors and parents to the current demands in the workplace and how there is an urgent need to strengthen and develop deep skills and work-related competencies among youths to prepare them for a more self-fulfilling career path. The reader will realise the importance of eradicating some of the work-related myths and recognise that matching of one's interest and passion has greater priority than salary, prestige or expectations of parents. The book will also expose other essential skills necessary in the transition to the job market such as the role of internship and mentors to assist youths to build their confidence as well as some personal social emotional competencies like their ability to be conscious of their thoughts and emotions as they self-manage and self-regulate themselves so that they are always aware of how to use their strengths to engage and relate with others as they make responsible decisions in their career plans or workplace.

Contents:

• Introduction:
  • Preparing for Work, Equipping for the Future (Lim Boon Huat)
  • Why Youths Need to Be Prepared for Work (Eden Liew)
• Developing Social-Emotional Competencies for Life:
  • Understanding Oneself through Self-Awareness (Jessie Ee)
  • Managing and Regulating Emotions (Jessie Ee)
  • Developing and Promoting Social Awareness (Jessie Ee)
  • Relationship Management (Jessie Ee)
  • Making Responsible Decisions (Jessie Ee)
• Developing Work-Related Competencies at Home and in School:
  • Knowing Oneself and Career Counselling (Ian Tan & Melvin Chia)
  • Getting the Most out of Industry Internships (Joel Lee)
  • Employability Skills in Career Preparation (Agnes Chang)
  • Networking through Collaborative Learning (Agnes Chang)
  • Building Confidence and Resilience (Esther Tan)
  • Fostering Critical Communication Skills for the Future (Jeffrey Mok)
  • Sharpening Your Resume Writing and Interview Skills (Adelaide Chang)
  • Work Values through Sports (John Tan)
  • Preparing Our Children for Tomorrow's World (Tan Khye Suan)
  • Preparing Future-Ready Students: A Teacher's Perspective (Brian Lui)
  • Nurturing Primary Students for the Real World (Siah Siew Ling & Chiok Hwee Fen)
  • Self-Regulation of AD(H)D Habits (Chelsea Chew)
  • Using Positive Psychology to Help Young Adults with High Functioning Autism Transit to the Workplace (Chelsea Chew)

Readership: Students, parents, educators and the general public.

Part 1

Introduction

Chapter 1

Preparing for Work, Equipping for the Future

Lim Boon Huat

Success in one’s life and career does not come by chance. Very often we have to plan and prepare for it. Having passion, dreams and aspirations are not enough. We must take personal action to prepare for our career journey. It may take a long time to establish a successful career but as the Chinese saying goes, “a thousand miles begins with the first step”. It is never too early to start this step while in school. Having an early and good career preparation is important if we want to secure a winning chance to fulfil our career aspiration in the current globalised and hyper-competitive world.

The need for, and significance of, good career preparation is well acknowledged today within the education sector. Boosted by the recent government’s initiative to make our education system more relevant to meet the changing needs of industry, our youths can look forward to a more supportive environment today to advance their career ambitions. Such an environment will give them a good starting point in their career journey.

One key factor that enhances the relevance of education to the needs of industry is to encourage applied learning in schools and tertiary institutions. The main goal is to strengthen development of deep skills and workplace competencies among students so as to better prepare them for the workplace. Endorsing this idea, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced at the opening of a new Institute of Technology (ITE) campus in January 2014 the setup of a review committee (ASPIRE—Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review) involving key stakeholders to examine ways to enhance and implement applied learning in ITEs and polytechnics and possibly extending to the universities. The recommendations of the ASPIRE committee were submitted and accepted by the government in August 2014. The work of ASPIRE has provided the basis for the establishment of SkillsFuture, which is a high-level national movement chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. It aims to foster closer linkages and integration between education, industry and workforce development to promote greater skills mastery in every vocation so as to enhance the capability of our workforce.

Underpinning the applied learning initiative is the desire to enhance the employability of local tertiary graduates. Towards this objective, one key recommendation is to strengthen acquisition of deep and complex skills and workplace competencies by providing more opportunities for students to get more exposure to the workplace through industry attachments and internship. Through this initiative, local tertiary students and graduates would then stand a good chance to compete and thrive effectively in the increasingly competitive job market.

While education and industry are making changes to further enhance applied learning, our students must also take ownership to embrace this change. They must make proactive efforts to develop industry-relevant skills and competencies to enhance their own career journey. To do this they must understand what it means to build up one’s career or vocation and define strategies towards this goal.

Although the need to develop their career is well understood, many young people often struggle to make the right career choice due to lack of information and understanding of the working world. Without a clear goal in mind they are not able to prepare for work early.

In this chapter, I will explain why it is important for school leavers and tertiary students to (1) take ownership of their own career development and (2) to start building their career journey early while they are still in school. A key part in preparing for work is to understand the realities of job markets and what employers look for in young talents. To prepare for the working world there are some practical strategies that students can take to strengthen the necessary skills for a successful career in the future.

Transiting to the Job Market

Making the right career choice is one issue facing our youth today. For many school leavers, making the transition to tertiary education can be quite daunting. Suddenly, they are confronted with the need to choose a course of specialisation in polytechnics or ITEs. They have to think very hard about their career choices given the very limited knowledge and exposure they have about the various jobs and workplaces. Often they resort to friends, parents and relatives for advice about the various job options in order to decide what course to take in polytechnics or ITEs. For some, they simply follow the choice of their friends. Others have no choice but to base their decision on the entry-points requirements of the course. From my own informal survey, only very few students actually apply for a course based on their self-defined career direction.

After students have chosen and enrolled in a course, they do not really give much serious thought to their personal career planning and development. They assume that by completing the course well with good grades, they will stand a good chance of getting a good job in the job market. However, as they soon discover, it is not so straightforward. Getting an educational qualification may not necessarily lead to a good job. Many graduates on an average take about six months to find a job, and for the not so fortunate ones, it could take even longer. For the first time many begin to realise that getting the desired job is not as easy as they have originally thought. Competition in the job market is very keen. Fresh graduates are not just competing with fellow fresh graduates from their cohort but also with experienced people in the market. It becomes clear to them beyond grades there are other subjective factors that will determine whether one gets a job. Being highly educated academically is no longer adequate for work.

Or some may find that there is not much demand in the job market for what they are trained for. As an integral part of an economic system, the job market is subject to swings in demand and supply. Either one ends up in a situation where there is no demand for a particular profession due to industry restructuring or in a situation where there is an oversupply of graduates for a particular profession. In today’s society, economic uncertainty is rampant — not only jobs but entire industries could disappear overnight. For example in the IT industry, technology changes so fast that by the time one graduates, the knowledge acquired in school may have already become obsolete. The oversupply situation happens when students choose courses of study because of its popularity, perceived prestige and good pay in the sector.

Realities of the Job Market

Indeed, the realities of the job market is something many young graduates find hard to grapple with, especially when they have not been well exposed to the working world. The job market is subject to economic cycle, globalisation, technology and socio-political changes, and is often volatile, driven by business expansion, restructuring or contraction. We are living in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Such swings have become part and parcel of working life for any participants in the economy.

Globalisation has also resulted in geopolitical borders declining in relevance to global business practices. Global corporations are showing less loyalty to countries of origin and more to regions in which they find new markets. The modern multinational organisation has evolved far beyond a collection of country-based subsidiaries to become instead a globally integrated array of specialised business functions — procurement, management, R&D, manufacturing, sales, etc. — distributed through the world, wherever attractive markets exist and talents can be found.

The knowledge economy is also demanding new types of learners and creators leading to new forms of learning and education. The proportion of American workers doing jobs that call for complex and deep skills has grown three times as fast as employment in general (The Economist, 2006). Driven by technology and competition, there has been a trend towards “massification” of education in the last few decades. More and more people, especially in the developing economies, have now access to higher education. Many see education as the way to improve their economic livelihood. Almost 17 million students worldwide earned first university degrees in 2010, with about 5.5 million of these in the science and engineering fields. The growth of students in higher education comes mainly from developing economies. In 2007, China overtook the United States as the world leader in the number of doctoral degrees awarded in the natural sciences and engineering with an increase from about 4,000 in 1996 to more than 31,000 in 2010. In Asia, China has been the largest producer of science and engineering degrees since 2000 (National Science Board, 2014).

The “massification” of education (Trow, 2000) coupled with the mobility of international talents, have led to an increasing influx of young and highly educated graduates not only from developing countries but also from those stagnant economies in developed countries, entering the global workforce. What all these means is that competition in the job market especially from developing countries, will be very keen. Having an open economy and being a global hub, Singapore is limited in what it can do to stop this influx.

Multinational employers do not show loyalty to any country when it comes to hiring people, unless they are restricted by local labour regulations. This means that employers now have more choices beyond the local graduates. It should also be noted that employers do not necessarily have special consideration for fresh graduates as a category by itself in their hiring practice. They will look for the best fit among the wide choices of candidates to fill their available positions. Ultimately, the position is given based on many factors such as pay expectation, experience, and personal attributes.

Employers also place a premium on expertise. For many employers, work experience is a good proxy for expertise. The reason is that having work experience helps to reduce the overall investment in training to bring the newcomer on board. We should also note that having attained a good educational qualification does not necessary equate to expertise. Hence, doctors and lawyers must complete one year of training praxis in a hospital or law firm before they can practise their profession. Knowing the importance of gaining expertise, many well-informed fresh graduates are looking for opportunities to secure a job to allow them to practise their profession. For those who are unable to find jobs relevant to their educational qualification, there is a possibility that they may end up in jobs that do not commensurate in pay and position with their qualification. In this respect, although educational qualification continues to be a key criterion, deep skills and practical experience have become even more crucial for employers in hiring.

While vacancies are filled mostly by recruiting from the job market, increasingly it is now filled by tapping into companies’ talent pipelines. Progressive companies are always on the lookout for good talents within their ranks and people they come into contact with to form their talent pipeline for future positions. Having a talent pipeline helps to reduce companies’ recruitment and talent search cost. Therefore, informal contacts with industry via internship or projects could provide our students with invaluable opportunities for future employment. Given the importance of expertise and experience, it is therefore important that students should learn to value work experience in their career preparation. Whenever possible, they should secure a chance to gain relevant working experience.

Common Gaps in Local Students and Fresh Graduates As Observed by Employers

Many of our local graduates often fail to appreciate the realities of the job market. They fail to realise that having an educational qualification or good grades alone is not a guarantee to secure a position and that career success is based not so much on obtaining a higher degree such as a Masters or PhD but on a person’s work credentials and track record in the industry. The days when employees could go to their employers to ask for pay increase after obtaining an additional educational qualification are over. Pay in most organisations (public or private) is now based on work performance and contribution and no longer on academic credentials.

From the numerous job interviews conducted in our firm, we note that in many instances students and graduates are also not so well prepared for the workplace. They do not understand the intricacies of the working world. This is probably due to their lack of exposure. This is perfectly understandable as they have been socialised since childhood in a school and academic environment that has its own organisational cultures and knowledge practices. For them, the school is their only social reality of an organisation.

The practices of the workplace are certainly very different from that of schools. It is not surprising that many things in the workplace which working adults take for granted are something new and surprising for young students. For example, many students do not know how a company functions and how the various departments interact in the operation of a company. One intern innocently admits that she does not know what people are doing in front of computers in an office!

Many are also applying for jobs in the industry without knowing much about the industry, the markets and its ecosystems. For example,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Developing Social-Emotional Competencies for Life
• Part 3: Developing Work-Related Competencies at Home and in School