17 October 2018 – The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) kicked off three days of graduation celebration for the Class of 2018 today. The opening ceremony, held at SIT@Dover, was graced by Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Chan Chun Sing.

The SIT Graduation Ceremony marks the beginning of a new journey for SIT graduates. The 1,650-strong Class of 2018 comprises 407 graduates from seven SIT-conferred and SIT-joint degrees[1], as well as 1,243 graduates from 26 degree programmes conferred by nine overseas universities[2] in partnership with SIT.

Pioneer Graduates in Five Programmes

This year, SIT will be presenting pioneer graduates from the following programmes:

These graduates completed the Integrated Work Study Programme (IWSP) as part of their degree programmes. The IWSP is mandatory for all SIT-conferred and joint degree programmes and key to the university’s applied learning pedagogy. Students undertake real work for eight to 12 months, allowing them to integrate theory and practice and develop deep specialist skills in their chosen field. The IWSP is structured in a unique and distinct way for each degree programme, catering to the specific needs of the industry to develop industry-ready graduates.

The Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (SIE-Land) programme, launched in 2014, is the first of its kind in Singapore, offering highly-specialised training for the land transport industry with a focus on railway engineering. Graduates who are seeking to be a Chartered Engineer or Professional Engineer have an option to undergo an additional year in the programme to graduate with a Master of Engineering Technology (MEngTech).

One graduate who completed both BEng and MEngTech in SIE (Land) is Tengku Muhammad Khalaf. After graduating from Singapore Polytechnic, Khalaf worked for a few years before chancing upon the new SIE (Land) programme in 2014. Khalaf seized the opportunity to deepen his knowledge and skills relevant to the industry, and did well to receive the Public Transport Scholarship from SMRT in 2017. He served his one-year IWSP in SMRT as an Associate Engineer, an experience which enhanced his knowledge of the rail industry and prepared him well for work upon graduation. Khalaf recently joined SMRT as an Executive Engineer.

The ICT (Software Engineering) and ICT (Information Security) programmes were launched in 2014 and 2015 respectively, with the latter being Singapore’s first undergraduate degree programme focusing on Information Security to meet industry demand for cyber security professionals. ICT students undergo a one-year IWSP work placement that is integrated with flipped classroom teaching and an industry-focused capstone project.

ICT graduate Nicholas See Wee Kiat is the winner of the IMDA Gold Medal and the Singapore Computer Society Prize for Final Year Best Capstone Project in Software Engineering. He embarked on a solo project during his IWSP with a local firm that offers various asset management solutions to shopping mall operators. Nicholas successfully introduced a new digital method that efficiently translates floor plans into two-dimensional versions, enabling users to easily reconfigure retail spaces on a web application. The application has subsequently been implemented by the company. Nicholas is currently working at Deloitte Consulting in Southeast Asia as an Analyst, a role that allows him to put his analytical and developer skills to work, to offer tech solutions to his customers’ business problems.

The SIT-UofG Nursing programme was launched in 2016 to prepare graduates for leadership roles and take the nursing profession forward, in line with the Ministry of Health’s three career tracks of clinical, education, and management. It is a two-year post-registration programme where students not only learn the theories underpinning nursing but also apply these theories in actual work settings during a six-week clinical attachment.

Stellar nursing graduate Sabrina Tan Chen Yin was awarded the much-coveted Ngee Ann Kong Si Gold Medal, in recognition of her all-round excellence whilst at SIT. In addition to her outstanding academic results, the panel of judges acknowledged Sabrina’s contribution to the community while she was an active member of SIT Community Service Club. She demonstrated leadership qualities while leading Project Myanmar and Laos, during which she drove fundraisers, built classrooms and organised leadership camps for youths together with her fellow team members. Her exemplary pursuit of excellence in serving the community and in academia earned her a cash prize of $20,000. She has since commenced her full-time position as a Staff Nurse at the Emergency Department of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, a position that was offered to Sabrina upon completion of her studies.

SIT Graduates Well Sought After by Employers

In a preliminary survey[3] of the Class of 2018 conducted by SIT, close to 70 per cent of graduates from SIT-conferred degrees received employment offers from firms where they did their IWSP, and over 90 per cent among those surveyed had secured jobs. In particular, for the SIT Accountancy programme, 92 per cent of the cohort received advance job offers upon completion of their IWSP. Out of these, 84 per cent had accepted the offers and moved on to be full-time employees at their IWSP firms. Eight students in particular, who received offers from Ernst & Young (EY) Singapore, were also given the option to accelerate their career by starting in a position above entry level.

One of them is Accountancy graduate Lau Chee Guan, who received a higher than entry-level Associate Level 2 position, following his excellent IWSP stint at EY Singapore. Chee Guan cites the intensive eight-month IWSP work attachment as an applicable experience, where he could tackle real-life situations and interact with clients, under the tutelage of the senior members of his team. Chee Guan is also the recipient of the Singapore Accountancy Commission Outstanding Student Leader Award for his contribution to the SIT Taekwondo Club.

Launch of SITizens Learning Credits

SIT also launched the SITizens Learning Credits initiative, which gives S$2,000 worth of credits each to SIT’s 8,000-strong alumni[4]. In line with the national SkillsFuture movement, this scheme is the university’s commitment to its alumni in supporting their efforts to upgrade their skills and further develop their careers, beyond undergraduate education.

The SITizens Learning Credits initiative enables graduates from SIT’s Bachelor degree programmes to take up eligible courses offered by SIT’s Lifelong Learning division, SITLEARN Professional Development. These include SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)-funded courses offered by SITLEARN that range from one-day masterclasses to multiple-week short courses, and cover topics including health sciences, cybersecurity and data analytics.

The credits can be used from April 2019 and have a validity period of five years. The registration of interest will begin in January 2019 for courses commencing from April 2019. More details are available at https://www.singaporetech.edu.sg/sitlearn/sitizens-learning-credits.

Said Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President, SIT, “A key SIT-DNA is the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn, something we instill in our students from Day One. Further, in SIT, we have a saying, ‘Once a SITizen, Always a SITizen’. The SITizens Learning Credits initiative is our way to reinforce that message to our students.We want all SITizens, those in the university today and those out working, to develop a mindset and habit of lifelong learning through continuous professional development so that they will remain adaptable, relevant and nimble. SIT will always be there to cater to their needs.”

SITLEARN Professional Development develops industry-relevant, authentic learning experiences that help working professionals connect the dots between theory and real-world application. In 2017, SITLEARN trained almost 3,000 working adults in more than 850 organisations through 55 unique development offerings across key sectors such as healthcare, process safety and engineering.

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[1] These include five SIT-conferred degrees in Accountancy, Hospitality Business, ICT (Software Engineering), ICT (Information Security) and SIE (Land), as well as two joint degrees in Diagnostic Radiography (SIT-Trinity College Dublin) and Nursing (SIT-University of Glasgow).

[2] The nine SIT overseas university partners are DigiPen Institute of Technology, Newcastle University, Technical University of Munich, The Culinary Institute of America, The Glasgow School of Art, Trinity College Dublin, University of Glasgow, University of Liverpool and Wheelock College.

[3] Survey covers graduates from SIT-conferred degrees in Accountancy, Hospitality Business, ICT (Software Engineering), ICT (Information Security) and SIE (Land).

[4] SIT alumni are graduates of SIT who have been conferred degrees by SIT or by SIT’s Overseas University partners.