A Qualification Of Qualifications

This blog post will start with 2 stories.

1) An acquaintance has been sitting at home for the past year, trying to get into a particular bank and trying to clear her modules for her degree from MDIS. Her justification is that with her work experience as a teller, that bank should take her in as an executive, degree or not.

2) A particular country in South East Asia has just realised that it needs to boost the productivity of its workforce in order to compete with other Newly Industrialised Economies. The recession has shown just how risky it is to base an economy on exports and services, both procyclical in nature.

This post may sound elitist, but it is not. It is a story of why we must improve ourselves and not let the bigger fish eat us.

It is common in Singapore to lambast people who pursue educational qualifications. Examples: "cert only what, work experience is more important" or "scholar dunno how to do anything one".

Let me qualify some points with regards to education.

• Getting a degree is never about the qualification, it is partly about gaining the knowledge learnt in your course and more about being able to handle stress and hard work. Employers want workers are exposed to cutting-edge business thought, as well as workers who have proven themselves capable of hardwork and perseverance.
• People who blast scholars are usually at too low a level to understand the things these people do. Higher education trains people for planning and development work, not just ground level labour.
• Higher education also exposes you to an intellectually-stimulating environment. I spend my days at ntu debating and intellectually sparring with diplomats, senior military ranking officers and scholars from many different countries. I may be lowest in the pecking order here, but I am learning how to fit into a new pecking order.
• This leads to personal development. We must always remember to aspire to be like those who are better than us. By interacting with high-flyers, we network with important people of the future. We also learn how they think and how they work, a tried-and-tested means to success.

So to all my friends who are hard at work pursuing an education, bravo to you. I hope you do well in your academic work and learn all the important soft-skills needed to give you that boost in your future career. The best things in life are always earned through sweat and blood.

Remember that as we grow in age, we must also mature and flower in other ways as well, be it intellect, personality or simply a wider world-view. There is a Chow Yun Fatt phrase my dad always tells me, I'll try to translate it from cantonese below. It is a reminder that short-term pain always leads to long-term gains.

Take a step back, now the sky looks wide and the sea is endless. Persevere a little, and the storm will die down.

Ang Heng/JJ