Singapore Gets It Right on Education

By John Richardson

Are you ever glad you are more towards the end rather than the beginning of your career – and just because the rose garden or the golf course are beckoning?

This has certainly been the case for me in working with (and I genuinely mean with – not just the false man management-speak meaning of the word) undergraduates from the National University of Singapore’s Chemical Engineering Department.

ICIS training has employed interns from the NUS for the last three years.

I have been impressed (and also mightily relieved that I won’t be competing with them for jobs!) at the students’ ability to think outside the box on all the big issues from the economy to environmental challenges. It almost goes without saying, given the quality of science-based education in Singapore, that they also possess excellent chemicals engineering knowledge.

This is the result of a coordinated government policy aimed at supporting the Singapore chemical industry’s need for a constant stream of new talent.

The NUS runs its degree course in chemical engineering with Temasek Polytechnic offering a diploma.

And on Jurong Island, where Singapore’s chemicals production hub is located, the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences carries out process and application research.

When you talk to undergraduates you realise that apart from being scientifically literate (not a particularly widespread aptitude back in my home country of the UK) they are, as I said, aware of the environmental issues.

They want to make a contribution to finding solutions to this problem, rather than ignorantly condemning an industry which is essential to our modern-day way of life.

It’s also worth mentioning the work of the Economic Development Board in upgrading the skills of industry employees as part of efforts to keep people working in chemicals during the current downturn.

Details about Singapore’s success in training chemicals engineering – and keeping them in the industry – will be provided over the next few weeks.