Monday, February 18, 2008

Singapore Budget 2008 - Upgrading Yourself

In the recent budget speech, Government announced that they will now subsidised 40% of the course fees for part-time degree courses! Finally~! I am so delighted!!!

However, I feel the Government can do more to help people like us who are aiming to get a part-time degree. Don't get me wrong, it is good to have the subsidise, but local Univerities' (like NTU and NUS, let's not talk about SIM first) offered limited part-time courses. Most of the part-time course offered are engineering courses (which is not everyone's interest). I wonder why can't local Universities offer part-time science, humanities, arts or social sciences degree courses?

I mentioned this to my group of friends last Saturday. We met up for the Night Safari "adventure" (I will update the trip another day). Most of us already have plans to upgrade ourselves. Among us, only one was hesitant about further studying. She is always entrepreneur-like, would prefer to use her saving to start a business than to further study. I don’t think she has made a wrong decision. A lot of the successful entrepreneurs whom we know today do not proper qualifications and they too make it to top of their game, see Bill Gates and Sim Wong Foo. Of course, they are not an everyday sight, but I believe if there is a good business idea and a decent amount of capital to work with, she might just make it.

I have also been planning to get a degree course in these few years. I definitely think that poly grads like us should not be contented with just a diploma and we should upgrade ourselves at every possible chance. It is pathetic but true, what we can do as a poly grad is very limited and there is sort of like an invisible cap at the types of things we can do even though we have the capabilities. The pay for poly grads are somewhat capped as well. For degree holders, at least I thought there isn’t such a cap for what they can do and what they can’t and there is no limit of how much a Uni-grad can earn.

One of my poly friends told me that if government is indeed going to subsidise part-time degree courses, she would want to take up Chinese Studies. Like me, her interest is in Chinese language. Honestly, if I wasn’t the eldest and I do not have the responsibilities to ensure that there is bread on the table one day, I will probably take that course too. However, in Singapore unless we want to be a Chinese teacher or maybe a reporter, the career choice will be very limited for the Chinese Studies degree.

Anyway, I have already found a course which I am quite interested in. Perhaps, when the details of Government’s subsidise are more firmed up, I can also afford a part-time degree course too. Hmmm...

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