Over 94% of SUSS fresh graduates secure employment within six months of their final examinations despite COVID-19 pandemic
Singapore, February 16, 2022 – More than 94% (or 372) of Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) full-time graduates from the Class of 2021 secured employment within six months of completing their final examinations. This indicates a continued strong demand for SUSS graduates despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The results were revealed in the annual Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey (JAUGES), jointly conducted by SUSS and the other Autonomous Universities.
A total of 414 out of the 511 graduates from the Class of 2021 participated in the survey – a response rate of 81.0%. They were from the Accountancy, Business Analytics, Early Childhood Education (ECE), Finance, Human Resource Management (HRM), Law, Marketing, Social Work and Supply Chain Management (SCM) programmes. Among the SUSS pioneer batch of full-time graduates, 93.5% from Business Analytics, and 100% from the Law programmes were employed within six months of completing their final examinations.
SUSS’ full-time Accountancy and SCM graduates continue to be in high demand with an overall employment of 98.6% and 97.4% respectively among those who entered the labour force in 2021.
The mean and median gross monthly salaries of SUSS graduates in full-time permanent employment1 are $3,438 and $3,300 respectively in 2021.
Graduates credited SUSS for its strong focus in applied learning and industry-relevant curriculum. Their learning journeys were grounded in SUSS core philosophy of ‘Head, Heart, Habit’, in which they are prepared to be well-rounded talents that are professionally competent, socially conscious, and lifelong learners.
SUSS President, Professor Cheong Hee Kiat said, “SUSS is proud of our graduates, who have shown resilience and adaptability to complete school and secure employment in the midst of a global pandemic. Despite this disruption, our graduates remain in high demand, testifying to our university’s industry-relevant and applied teaching pedagogies. Together with SUSS holistic education that nurtures the Head, Heart and Habit, I am confident that our graduates will make their mark for the greater good of society and make a positive contribution to our community.”
How has SUSS helped our graduating students find jobs?
Most graduates found that SUSS’s Career Services had a positive impact on them and that SUSS had prepared them for the job market.
SUSS’s Career Development Office curates and facilitates a wide spectrum of work-related programmes, courses and workshops to support students in their transition from the university to the workforce. Students receive training in personal branding, job search and interviewing skills, opportunities to engage with industry practitioners through talks, company visits and networking sessions, and career-related coaching and advice from career mentors. Because of SUSS’s small cohort size, the students get more personalised advice from career mentors.
A work attachment of minimally 24 weeks is a graduation requirement for all SUSS full-time degree programmes. The stint exposes students to authentic work environments, provides opportunities for the application and development of skills and competences, as well as facilitates the assimilation of work ethics and soft skills for work. Every student on work attachment is paired with a career mentor who guides the student throughout the learning experience. These mentors bring with them a wealth of commercial and professional experience, strong connections in many industry sectors and deep knowledge of industry trends and developments, all of which are important in helping students be competitive in the job market.
In addition to the work attachment, other graduation requirements include the overseas experience (during Covid-19, SUSS students undergo virtual internship and exposure programmes), as well as service-learning and community engagement initiatives. The e-portfolio and SUSS Core2 courses, together with the academic curriculum, round up the suite of academic and experiential components of a holistic education that focuses on developing the Head, Heart and Habit of every graduate of SUSS.
What do SUSS graduates say about the University’s educational experience?
“The Logistics and Information Technology modules that I took at SUSS, coupled with the training and internships opportunities offered by the Career Development Office enabled me to make good judgements and decisions in my current role.” – Lai Kah Seng, 26, SUSS Supply Chain Management graduate
Lai Kah Seng graduated from SUSS with a Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management. A supply planning analyst at Procter and Gamble (P&G), Kah Seng’s role is to plan for raw materials in goods production. He firmly believes that SUSS’s modules and internship opportunities equipped him with industry-relevant skillsets and a strong work ethic, which helped him in his job search and his current career.
Kah Seng performed an additional nine months internship with a maritime consultancy after his mandatory six months internship as he wanted to explore the maritime sector as well as experience how consultancies operate. He took this additional internship, while maintaining a full academic course load as a full-time student.
Kah Seng’s proactiveness also led him to secure a position with an e-commerce organisation before the completion of his final examinations. Despite the intense e-commerce environment, he was able to drive continual operational excellence in the warehouse business of the company.
“SUSS provided me with many opportunities to explore my interests through compulsory internships, and many optional career development modules for students as part of their academic curriculum. These experiences enabled me to better understand my interests, skillsets and connected me with valuable industry contacts.” – Cindy Yeo Huan, 25, SUSS Business Analytics graduate
Cindy Yeo Huan graduated from SUSS with a Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics. She is currently working as a client executive at Microsoft’s information technology sector, where she looks after key business accounts.
Cindy found her four years in SUSS to be enriching and very helpful. She received mentorship and guidance from the Career Development Office which saw her land multiple internship roles even during the pandemic. Cindy found the wide range of internship experiences not only helped to give a better understanding of her career preferences but also made her stood out among her peers.
Cindy believes her course of study at SUSS prepared her for the workforce. She gained soft business skills and hard technical knowledge – both of which are crucial to being a relevant and adaptable employee. Coupled with her polytechnic internship experiences, Cindy’s background in Business Analytics helped her understand technologies easily and she was able to translate technical knowledge into business language.
“I truly enjoyed the tutorials with my professors and tutors, who shared their personal experiences on previous cases to illustrate examples during lessons. The SUSS Bachelor of Laws programme not only consisted of theory but also practical aspects of the law, which were beneficial for my future practice as a lawyer.” – Joanne Giam Sha-Lyn, 26, SUSS Law graduate
Joanne Giam Sha-Lyn graduated from SUSS with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB). She is the pioneer batch of graduates in this LLB programme and is currently working as a practice trainee at I.R.B LAW LLP. While studying in the LLB programme, Joanne was working full-time as a paralegal with I.R.B LAW LLP. In her course of work, Joanne was able to apply acquired knowledge in real legal issues to find solutions to a client’s issue. This also provided her with the affirmation to specialise in family law in future, specifically in probate and mental capacity applications.
Joanne also found her three-month internship programme at the Singapore Court and other law firms to be an eye-opening experience. It offered Joanne a different perspective from the judges’ point of view and also exposed her to other areas of law. During an internship with the Family Justice Courts, Joanne had the opportunity to be able to present a mock case submission to the court and be directly mentored by actual judges, which was an extremely rare experience.
Joanne is thankful for the continuous support and efforts from her professors in ensuing that she was on track throughout her SUSS journey. In her current role, she continues to apply what she had learnt and the skills acquired to her work.
She has completed her Part B Bar Examinations and is currently awaiting to be called to the Singapore Bar as a lawyer.
-END-
1 Full-time permanent employment refers to the number of graduates working on a full-time permanent basis, as a proportion of graduates in the labour force (i.e. those who were working, or not working but actively looking and available for a job).
2 The SUSS Core courses provide a common experience in the humanities and applied social sciences to all SUSS undergraduate students to achieve the broader goals of cross-disciplinary knowledge and competencies, and emphasises the importance and role of human skills in a technologised world. It offers a dedicated cluster of courses focused on emerging and complex local and global issues, teaching students to think critically, reflexively, empathetically, and creatively to provide well-reasoned personal responses as well as responses as trained professionals in their respective areas.
For media queries and interviews, please contact:
Valerie Ng (Ms)
Senior PR Manager
Communications & Marketing
Singapore University of Social Sciences
Email: [email protected]
Tian Zhiyuan (Mr)
Manager
Communications & Marketing
Singapore University of Social Sciences
Email: [email protected]
About the Singapore University of Social Sciences
Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) is a university with a rich heritage in inspiring lifelong education and transforming society through social sciences. We develop work-ready graduates and work-adaptive alumni to their fullest potential through our 3H’s education philosophy – ‘Head’ for professional competency with applied knowledge, ‘Heart’ for social awareness to meet the needs of the society, and ‘Habit’ for passion towards lifelong learning.
We offer over 80 undergraduate and graduate programmes, available in full- and part-time study modes which are flexible, modular and inter-disciplinary, catering to both fresh school leavers and adult learners. SUSS also offers a broad range of continuing education and training modular courses for the professional skills upgrading of Singapore's workforce.
Our programmes and courses are offered by our five schools:
- S R Nathan School of Human Development
- School of Business
- School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences
- School of Law
- School of Science and Technology
To date, over 42,000 graduates have experienced our unique brand of education, and each year, about 17,000 students are pursuing their full- and part-time studies with us.
The Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), as part of SUSS, leads in the field of research on adult learning to build capabilities of the training and adult education sector in Singapore and beyond.
For more information on SUSS, please visit suss.edu.sg.
