The headlines in the Straits Times read "Job woes part of transition to quality growth: Lim Swee Say".
Is it?
I saw another article reporting that graduates from private schools found it difficult to get jobs.
When will our ministers realize the folly of the government policies practiced over the past few decades? It has resulted in a high influx of foreigners to do the real work in Singapore while our citizens pursue paper degrees that are not suited to the needs of the economy.
Some of these jobs are in the public sector, such as:
a) Police and immigration officers
b) Nurses
The bad policies of the government include:
a) Stopping the career path of non-graduates. This has recently been reversed for the Police service.
b) Paying low salaries for non-graduates jobs. This has led to outsourcing of immigration and security jobs to foreigners.
The public sector must set an example to pay adequate salaries and give career growth to people with experience, even if they are non graduates. Many of the real jobs in the economy need people with real skills that come through experience, and not from paper qualifications.
The public sector should reserves its policies of discriminating against non-graduats. It should set the examples and provide benchmarks for salaries and career growth to people who are willing to do the real work and to acquire the experience to do them well.
2 comments:
Becoz of all the hot air spewing from PAP ministers, that's why civil service still don't practice what they preach or what is quoted in the newspapers. The wage gap between diploma holders and degree holders in the civil service is still too wide. Degree holders starting salary around $3,500 versus diploma holder around $2,300. That's $1,200 difference or over 52% of a diploma holder's salary!!!
"When will our ministers realize the folly of the government policies practiced over the past few decades?"
I don't think this is an issue in the past. To give credit where it's due, we're progressing well till the last 15 years or so. We fail to recognize the trend after the dot com burst. Every failure doesn't mean it's the end, it means the trend is being refined. Till we see the disruptive technologies now, disrupting our economies. When will our ministers realize the folly of the government policies practiced over the past few decades?
What we did in the past, having EDB to get foreign investment and aligning our education system to the MNCs investments don't work anymore. As we can the Biotech and Multimedia industries isn't doing very well.
I'm thinking the new economy will be quite different from the industrial age. The new economy will be SMEs or sole proprietors assisted by technologies and internet. Imagine our grandpas's era but selling their services or organic crops online. The schools need to be aware not to over-teach and transform every kid into a robot waiting for instructions.
And the population should also be aware that there's a trend that's being seen in South Korea that graduates can't find jobs. When there's a lack of demand the supply will not be there. However when the demand is overwhelming like tuition centers, you can't blame the government for discriminating the grads and the non-grads. The government policies can only be popular when the people subscribe to it. So we have ourselves to blame partly.
Civil Service is a large employer, but there's also the private sector. If the private sector is closing the salary gap between the grads and non-grads, then there'll be less non-grads to work in the civil service. I agree that the government need to set an example, but isn't it everybody's responsibility to do what's right?
Ultimately, if the situation gets so bad that the low income earners feel that they are better off robbing and killing to make their living, who will suffer?
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