28 July 2019
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu recently gave a speech to graduands from the Chinese, English, History, Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, and Philosophy programmes at the convocation ceremony for Nanyang Technological University’s School of Humanities. Bachelor’s degrees were awarded to 390 graduands, while 55 received higher degrees at the Nanyang Auditorium.
Ms Fu recounted after her own graduation from the National University of Singapore in 1985, many of her accountancy course mates had difficulty finding jobs.
She said: “A small, open economy, Singapore is susceptible to global forces. Increasing trade frictions, anti-globalisation, protectionism, technological advancements, demographic shifts — these are the words that we hear these days and they are changing our economy, our jobs, the nature of our industry. You might be asking yourself, ‘Am I prepared for what lies ahead?’. I had the same question when I graduated.”
“Change, rapid transformation, and anxiety affect every cohort of youth. It might sound nonchalant. But believe me, every generation will find their own way to discover new opportunities. And there’s every reason to believe that your generation can do, too.”
According to a recent graduate employability survey 7 in 10 NTU graduates managed to secure jobs before graduation last year.