Thursday, September 15, 2005

Singapore has adequate talent

I often hear the remark, "Singapore is short of talent".

I disagree. We have adequate talent. However, they are not well used.

We have many well educated people. Look at the number of graduates, including those who have pursued university degrees on their own. We have many MBAs.

The problem is: are they able to apply their knowledge well? The answer is, "many people are over-educated and under-utilised".

If they learn how to apply their knowledge effectively, we will have more than sufficient talent.

4 comments:

cole. said...

and we often forget that we have very talented people, who aren't that highly-educated.

Mockingbird said...

So can people without university degrees still be considered as talented? I believe being highly educated and talented are 2 separate matters. Afterall, not many singing and acting talents are highly educated right?

Mockingbird said...

Is there anyone who is under-educated but over-utilised?

K.S. said...

I disagree with the statement "many people are over-educated and under-utilised".

My take is simple. Our educational institutions did not prepare the graduates well enough for them to undertake the tasks of the job they are working on.

In simpler term, our education system advocates theory without much thought to practicality. There is such thing call "apprenticeship" in Europe. This is something that we are lacking here in Singapore.

We are simply having a system that want to show the world that each and every institution is the best because the students scored as such.

What did we achieved? We produced tons of Roman generals, none an Alexander the Great or Hannibal of Carthage!

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