I don't want to be the middleman!

This is what I have noticed ever since this so called boom in Singapore is taking place. Everyone is talking about jobs in banking and the finance sector, and some are actually totally ignorant about what it entails and just wants to be in it for the glam factor and the money. This is yet another result of micro managing. And this cannot be the case! When will Singaporeans realise that it is important to study what you really like? One moment it's life science, another moment is banking, what will the next fad be? The only constant is yourself!!

And it is common knowledge in growth theory that long term economic growth can only come about through technological innovations. And this can only come about through sciences and engineering! If everybody goes into banking, we will forever be the middleman, helping the super rich to manage their wealth, and never becoming the super rich ourselves! Because we are not creating our own wealth!!!!! Sigh....

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From The Straits Times

Not enough takers for engineering scholarships

Defence technology agency DSO worries that switch to 'softer' courses will spell trouble for Singapore

By Liaw Wy-Cin

BETWEEN five and 10 of the 40 defence engineering scholarships offered to Singaporeans each year are not taken up.
This could become a serious problem for Singapore.

DSO National Laboratories chief executive Quek Gim Pew told The Straits Times recently that Singapore relies heavily on advanced defence technologies to compensate for what it lacks in size. This means the country needs a continuous supply of engineers in the traditional areas of electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering.

DSO is a defence technology development agency.

Said Mr Quek: 'Most scholarship applicants we interview want to study chemistry and biology and are interested in a career in life sciences, instead of physics and engineering.'

While other sectors can employ foreigners to address the manpower crunch, this is not an option in the highly classified field of defence technology research and development.

The number of scholarship applicants who want to study engineering has decreased by more than 10 per cent from 2002 to this year, he added.

The situation reflects the fact that the brightest students increasingly opt for 'softer' and more glamorous courses - in business and finance, for example.

In recent years, engineering has slipped from its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s as the career of choice among students. The profession had the highest number of job vacancies in the past two years, according to Ministry of Manpower figures.

About one-third of the 3,639 top 10 professional job vacancies last year were in engineering. The proportion was similar in 2005.

DSO has not been able to fill its quota of scholarship places in the past few years, said Mr Quek. And this year, it is 8 to 10 per cent short of its annual target of 40 engineers to conduct research into high-tech weapon systems, for example.

Universities and polytechnics here have also reported a decline in the demand for places in the physical sciences and engineering courses, saying students do not see engineering as promising an exciting career.

In an attempt to arrest the slide, some universities have relaxed criteria for entry to the engineering faculty by allowing those without a physics background to pursue engineering.

And to attract students flocking to courses in business and finance, the universities last year offered engineering double degrees with business courses.

With these options, universities here will hopefully avoid the fates of some others, like Reading in Britain which had to close its physics department due to falling enrolment.

In Singapore, the shortage of local engineers seems to affect smaller companies more than larger ones.

About 75 per cent of Keppel Offshore & Marine's 1,300 engineers are Singaporean, and only 6 per cent of ST Engineering's 2,700 are foreign.

In contrast, most of Sys-Mac Automation Engineering's 20 graduate engineers are from China and Malaysia; only three or four are Singaporeans.

Its managing director Lawrence Sim explained why.

'When I advertised in the local newspapers, I hardly got any response. It was only when I advertised in Malaysia's New Straits Times, could I field candidates for my job vacancies, mainly mechanical engineering positions,' he said.