17 September 2019 – Graduates from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) continue to be well-received by the industry, with high overall employment and increased starting salaries. The 2018 Joint Autonomous University Graduate Employment Survey (JAUGES) ^[1] findings ^[2] revealed that 92.5% of SIT graduates in the labour force ^[3] who completed their studies between October 2017 and September 2018 were employed. This is comparable to the 92.3% figure in 2017.

85.2% of the university’s cohort of 1,707 graduates from SIT and SIT’s nine Overseas University (OU) partners across 33 degree programmes participated in SIT’s fifth annual GES, which was conducted between 1 March and 14 May 2019.

The proportion of graduates in the labour force who secured full-time permanent (FTP) employment is the same as last year’s at 82.9%. Beyond full-time permanent employment, 7.0% and 2.6% of graduates in the labour force were in part-time/temporary employment and freelancing respectively in 2018. Of those in part-time/temporary employment, the majority were doing so voluntarily, citing reasons such as pursuing further studies, embarking on a business venture or preference for shorter/flexible working hours.

The mean gross monthly salary ^[4] among fresh graduates in FTP employment was higher at $3,437 in 2018, compared to $3,350 in 2017. The median gross monthly salary was $3,300 in 2018, higher than the $3,200 in 2017. For Information & Digital Technologies graduates, there was an increase in median gross monthly salary from $3,600 in 2017 to $4,000 in 2018, while graduates from across the Engineering programmes also earned a higher median gross salary of $3,400 in 2018, from $3,200 in 2017.

SIT GES 2018 Results at a Glance

Note: Employment rate figures may not add up due to rounding off.

High overall employment was attained across the inaugural batch of graduates from three SIT-conferred degree programmes. Among those in the labour force, 96.6% of graduates from the Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land) programme secured FTP employment. For the Information and Communications Technology (Information Security) programme, all graduates in the labour force were employed in FTP jobs. For the Information and Communications Technology (Software Engineering) programme, 95.7% of graduates in the labour force were in FTP employment.

Graduates from SIT’s Healthcare-related programmes continue to be well-sought after by the industry. Among those in the labour force, 95.7% of Allied Health (i.e. Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Diagnostic Radiography and Radiation Therapy) graduates and 90.7% of the inaugural batch of Nursing graduates from the SIT-University of Glasgow joint programme were in FTP employment.

Associate Professor (A/Prof) Ivan Lee, Vice-President (Industry & Community), SIT commented on the GES 2018 findings, “We are heartened that SIT students continue to enjoy high employability and competitive salaries. In line with our applied learning focus to nurture and develop graduates who are industry-ready in the increasingly fast-evolving world, our signature Integrated Work Study Programme (IWSP) aims to equip graduates with real work experience and exposure, which is much valued by employers. Designed specifically to meet the needs of our industry partners, IWSP allows undergraduates to work on real-world projects that enable them to integrate their studies with workplace learning, and this has reaped positive results. Among last year’s batch of graduates from SIT-conferred programmes, more than 70% received job offers from their IWSP companies, attesting to the success of our industry-focused approach.”

A flagship programme of SIT, the IWSP provides students with opportunities to integrate the knowledge they have gained in the classroom with real-world industry experience. Students from SIT-conferred degree programmes will be immersed in a real work environment for eight to 12 months, longer than traditional internships, that enables effective application of knowledge learnt and integration into the workforce. Since its inception in 2014, the IWSP has expanded to cover 16 SIT and joint degree programmes, with over 1,000 students going out into the industry for their work-study attachments in the academic year 2018. The industry perceives the IWSP as a means to grow its talent pipeline, as the extended attachments allow employers to assign meaningful tasks and challenging projects to SIT students to assess their suitability as full-time hires.

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[1] The JAUGES is conducted by the six Autonomous Universities (NTU, NUS, SIT, SMU, SUSS and SUTD) every year to collect information on the employment status of graduates around six months after the completion of their final examinations. Due to their different academic calendars, NUS, NTU, SMU and SUSS conduct their surveys in November each year, while SUTD and SIT conduct their surveys in February and March respectively.

[2] Details on SIT’s course-level results are available on the MOE website.

[3] Graduates in the labour force refer to economically active graduates (i.e. working, or not working but actively looking and available for a job).

[4] Gross monthly salary comprises the basic salary, fixed allowances, over-time pay, commissions and other regular cash payments, before deductions of the employee’s CPF contributions and personal income tax. Employer’s CPF contributions, bonuses, stock options, other lump sum payments, and payments-in-kind are excluded.