S2E14: To enter the workforce with a diploma or not?

Mar 16, 2025

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Major shifts in the job market and employer practices make for more options but tougher decisions too.

Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, get a headstart in your personal finance and career with The Straits Times.

Singapore’s tertiary education system has been shaken up in recent years, with polytechnics and universities among those seeing major changes.

These include apprenticeships, structured talent programmes, industry attachments, longer-duration internships and even global exposure opportunities that raise the skills bar and prepare students for skilled roles from the outset.

On one hand, some employers, especially in technical fields, seek for diploma graduates who enter the workforce earlier than others in their cohort and gain skills on the job.

On the other, there is a push to grow the proportion of the cohort enrolled in university for further studies.

ST correspondent Tay Hong Yi speaks with his guest, a seasoned education expert on how to make sense of these different forces in charting out your own education and career path.

His guest is:

Associate Professor Jason Tan, who studies education policy, curriculum and leadership at the National Institute of Education

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:10 Where are these shifts in the tertiary education system stemming from?

5:49 Does this mean there are more pathways to meet industry needs from an earlier age?

10:35 What are the challenges that come with these changes?

16:34 Pay structures that look strictly at paper qualifications may not reflect differences in skills

18:08 Keeping an open mind on the best choice

Read about one such recent change: https://str.sg/ioJA

Read Tay Hong Yi's articles: https://str.sg/w6cz

Follow Tay Hong Yi on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/AAxy

Host: Tay Hong Yi (hytay@sph.com.sg)