Private school grads in Singapore lag markedly behind peers from public universities in job market: survey

FRESH graduates from private schools continue to fall behind their counterparts from public universities, a survey on employment outcomes has found.

Nearly half of them - 47.4 per cent - found full-time permanent work six months after finishing their studies, compared with 78.4 per cent for their peers from three publicly-funded universities - the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU).

The survey released on Tuesday by the Committee for Private Education also found that the private school graduates earned median gross starting salaries of S$2,650 a month, below the S$3,400 for graduates of NUS, NTU and SMU.

The survey, conducted from November last year to February, focused on fresh graduates and is meant to reflect employment outcomes for new entrants into the labour force.

A total of 10,171 private school students graduated from full-time external degree programmes between May 2016 and April 2017, and had no prior full-time permanent jobs.

Of these, 37 per cent, or some 2,800 graduates responded to the survey.

They were asked about their employment status six months after finishing their final examinations, including the nature of their jobs and starting salaries. It is mandatory for all private education institutions offering external degree programmes to take part in the survey.

A total of 42 private schools took part in the exercise, of which 30 had graduates from full-time external degree programmes.

The survey showed that, overall, 79 per cent of fresh private school graduates were employed - full-time, part-time, or on a temporary or freelance basis within six months of finishing their examinations. This compares with the 88.9 per cent overall employment rate of graduates from public universities.

Mr Brandon Lee, Director-General (Private Education), SkillsFuture Singapore, said the survey is meant to "increase information transparency and to provide prospective students with the ability to make informed decisions".

The Committee for Private Education comes under SkillsFuture Singapore, a statutory board.

"This is even more important today when there are many different pathways, not just in the private space, but also in the public space where there are new models of work and training that we're trying," he added.

Mr Lee encouraged private education institutions to look at the results and "review how they might want to improve their business model".

For instance, they could review their course offerings to make them more industry-relevant, provide better internship opportunities and greater support in their students' career search, he said.

"Very broadly, certain more specialised fields like computing do see better outcomes both in terms of salaries and employment outcomes," he said. "Overall, we want students to consider these figures, along with other considerations like their interest and what sectors best suit their needs," he added.

The latest survey results come after a previous survey of private school graduates by the committee was released in November last year. That was the first poll of its kind, which found that six in 10 graduates from private education institutions were hired full-time six months after they completed their final examinations. Their median starting pay was S$2,550 a month.

SkillsFuture Singapore, however, noted that last year's results are not comparable with the latest findings, as the respondents were polled during different time periods.

While noting that the profile of students differ across private schools, Mr Lee added: "Overall, we've gotten enough survey responses to make sure that the information that we have published is representative of the sector as a whole."

This year's survey had a higher response rate, compared with 32 per cent in the first edition, he added.

THE STRAITS TIMES