Introduction
Singapore is a thriving financial hub serving multiple industries and multi- nationals across the globe. Singapore has a well established and diversified financial sector which makes it recognized internationally and a safe place to do business. In 2003, financial services in Singapore accounted for 11.6% of the country’s gross domestic product while employing only 5% of the country’s population. Singapore have become a very attractive destination for banks and consulting firms to establish their Asia-Pacific headquarters and hearing NUS graduates landing positions in top banks and consulting firms like Mckinsey & Co., The Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Co, Credit Suisse, Bank of America – Merill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital has gradually become a norm. Given the increasing number of students from the engineering, business, computing and relevant science disciplines applying to these firms due to their attractive pay packages and training programs, we will therefore focus our energies on the banking and consulting sector.
3. Background
One of the main contributing factors that has led to Singapore being a renowned banking and consulting financial hub is having a highly skilled workforce. Singapore has many well-established business schools which are internationally recognized. In the Global MBA rankings for 2009, business schools of National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological Univesrsity (NTU) were ranked 35th and 24th respectively while INSEAD which has a campus in Singapore was 5th in the rankings. Such business schools have helped ensured that Singapore produces fresh graduates that are capable and able to excel in the banking and consulting sector. Additionally, students with degrees in engineering, computing and sciences like financial mathematics are automatic choices as analysts and IT professionals for their skills. Given that these jobs are highly sought after, there is very high competition between the 3 tertiary institutions graduates, NUS, NTU and SMU for these jobs.
In an interview conducted with Mrs. Corrine Ong, Director of the NUS Career Centre, it was noted that NUS fresh graduates have weaker oral communication skills as compared to graduates from other local universities. A portion of the NUS graduates are poor in marketing themselves and weak in engaging their potential employers. In a Straits Times article dated 3rd April 2009, fresh graduates from the Singapore Management University (SMU) Business School were noted to be able to attain higher paying jobs and also have a higher employment rate in the financial sector as compared to their NUS counterparts. NUS graduates having weaker oral communication skills could be a contributing factor to these statistics.
Investigations were conducted to find out the underlying causes behind NUS graduates possessing weaker oral communication skills. One major factor is the curriculum offered in the respective faculties5.
It was found that in NUS, the Faculty of Science and Arts and Social Sciences did not make communication modules mandatory for the undergraduates in their course of study. For the other faculties, although communication modules were made compulsory for their undergraduates, the lesson pace was fast and undesirable. Students were expected have good communication skills within 13 weeks study. However, we believe that 13 weeks is insufficient in equipping students with these communication skills. Through surveys, NUS students most felt that the school was not doing enough to prepare and equip them with the communication skills that were relevant to their workforce. In a few interviews conducted with NUS students who had done internships or attachments in the banking and consulting sector, it was further revealed that the school’s curriculum is insufficient in preparing students for work in the banking and consulting sector. On a scale rating of 1-10 on whether the school has helped prepare the student for work in the banking and financial sector, the maximum rating given was six and the least was zero.6 This has thus shown that the curriculum provided by NUS is insufficient in equipping students with the necessary oral communication skills specifically in the banking and consulting sector.
In SMU, it was found out that communication modules were offered were mandatory for undergraduates. In doing so, SMU have ensured that all their undergraduates had equal opportunities to learn and improve their communication skills that were relevant to the workplace. In addition, the different aspects of the essential communication skills were taught as separate modules. This is actually beneficial to the students as an entire semester is spent learning and mastering a particular aspect of communication. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that SMU students are generally able to express themselves well during interviews. This could probably account for the higher employment rate of SMU graduates over NUS graduates in the banking and consulting industry.
Additionally, we chose the banking and consulting industry as they are an example of the modern workplace with the typical adjectives being – diverse, fast paced, high stress, smart people etc. If students aren’t adequately prepared for life in such an environment, all students who aim to build corporate careers could find their career paths less rewarding.
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