12
February
2015
|
16:58
Asia/Singapore

Fruitful pickings at NUS Career Fair 2015

Students thronging the NUS Career Fair to learn more about the positions available

At the opening ceremony of the NUS Career Fair 2015 on 10 February, Mr Joseph P Mullinix, NUS Deputy President (Administration), highlighted several new initiatives by the Centre for Future-ready Graduates (CFG), including personalised career coaching and industry or job function-specific workshops.

More personalised career coaching will be offered to students from Year One, with CFG monitoring their progress closely. The Centre will also launch industry or job function-specific workshops for Year Two students onwards, allowing them to gain an early appreciation of the skill sets and competencies required. Beyond these schemes, CFG aims to partner employers in developing meaningful industry immersion programmes through internships, company orientation visits and projects.

Mr Mullinix said: "Internships are an incredible opportunity for students to contribute in a meaningful way, and it's also an opportunity for managers to get different perspectives on the work at hand, and most importantly, see how students can step up and solve problems.

Job polarisation, massification of higher education and gaps between the skills that companies require and what fresh graduates possess'these were some trends which Mr Mullinix pointed out. As such, CFG is focusing its efforts on preparing NUS graduates by arming them with market-ready skills, as well as helping them to be resilient and versatile in a fast-paced society. These skills include critical thinking, intellectual breadth, cross-cultural effectiveness and strong communications capabilities. Together with personal qualities such as initiative, inner resilience, inclusiveness and integrity, they form the package known as "i-NUS qualities.

The Career Fair, held over two days on 10 and 13 February, saw a record 262 organisations joining, with almost three-quarters of them repeat participants. One such employer is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Mr Nathaniel Tan, Human Resource Officer at MFA, said that over the years, the ministry has consistently hired NUS graduates into their ranks.

Global corporation Henkel has previously worked with NUS for internships and is pleased with the quality of the interns. Mr Jan Franzen, Regional Counsel and Head of Legal South East Asia, shared that the company is looking for candidates with workforce readiness, passion, flexibility and a can-do attitude.

More than 9,000 students are expected to visit the fair. Year 4 Faculty of Science student Patricia Jonatan said that the event was a useful platform for consolidating career discussions from many companies in a single location. Asked about the outcomes from her discussions, she said with a smile: "They asked for my resume.