21 December 2018

Adults can now apply to polytechnics for full-time studies under a new scheme that takes into account their job experience.

Even if their academic grades fall short of officially published standards, working adults can still show that they have the specified skill sets for their chosen courses through supplementary assessments administered by the polytechnics.

Polytechnics will use a combination of of interviews and other methods of assessment to evaluate work experience and performance.

For example, working adults applying to Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s infocomm and digital technologies courses may be assessed on logic and computational thinking, as well as general coding competencies.

Working adults generally need at least two years of work experience before applying, and will be required submit employment records and employer recommendations.

06 December 2018

St Joseph’s Institution has included innovation, leadership, visual arts and music through the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme last year, in line with changes to better recognise students’ non-academic talent.

SJI has also scrapped the academic category of the DSA selection process, which previously allowed pupils with just good grades to apply to the school.

SJI offers both the O-level track and the Integrated Programme (IP), which leads to the International Baccalaureate after six years.

Its principal Adrian Danker said that SJI wants to set aside places for pupils who are talented in areas other than mere academics. Pupils applying through innovation are given tasks, and teachers will look out for traits such as creativity and the ability to work in teams, he said.

01 November 2017

In Singapore, all MOE secondary schools, junior colleges and post-secondary education institutions will employ education and career guidance counsellors who will support students in making career choices.

These counsellors will be trained in career facilitation and counselling skills, and able to help students explore their strengths and interests.

Mr Wong Siew Hoong, MOE’s director-general of education, urging counsellors to support teachers in shaping students’ understanding of the changing world of work.

All three Institute of Technical Education colleges and the five polytechnics currently have six permanent counsellors each, while the counsellors for MOE schools are deployed on a roving arrangement.

These counsellors typically undergo 120 hours of training in career development facilitation and another six months in counselling skills. They will also be working closely with industry partners to plan programmes for students, such as career fairs, talks and workshops.

The New York Times
18 March 2015

At Harvard, Bucknell, Emory and other schools around the US, there have been record numbers of applicants yearning for an elite degree. They’ll get word in the next few weeks. Most will be turned down.

All should hear and heed the stories of Peter Hart and Jenna Leahy.

Peter didn’t try for the Ivy League. That wasn’t the kind of student he’d been at New Trier High School, in an affluent Chicago suburb. A friend of Peter’s was ranked near the summit of their class; she set her sights on Yale – and ended up there. Peter was ranked in the top third, and aimed for the University of Michigan or maybe the special undergraduate business school at the University of Illinois. Both rejected him.

He went to Indiana University instead. Right away, he noticed a difference. At New Trier, a public school posh enough to pass for private, he’d always had a sense of himself as someone ordinary, at least in terms of his studies. At Indiana, though, the students in his freshman classes weren’t as showily gifted as the New Trier kids had been, and his self-image went through a transformation.

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