is s'pore losing engineers?

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

IN A recent blog post, our Fix-it minister, Mr Khaw Boon Wan, announced that he has roped in PUB Chairman Mr Tan Gee Paw to be his Advisor on Rail Transformation. He commented that Mr Tan has made Singapore more self-sufficient in our water supply through the NEWater initiative and through his efforts, Mr Tan has made water engineering “sexy”.

This comes after a commentary earlier in July by Mr Han Fook Kwang who attributed the recent rail issues to a “hollowing out” of experienced engineers in the field today. Taking a quick look at the statistics from the two local universities offering engineering degrees, NUS has 5,529 engineering undergraduates currently (or about 20 per cent of its total undergraduate population for AY 14/15) while NTU has 10,434 engineering undergraduates (or about 44 per cent of its total undergraduate population for AY 14/15). The numbers are pretty clear, there are still a large number of students enrolled to study engineering. Perhaps Mr Khaw was right, engineering has indeed become sexy.

But the story is not so simple.

As a chemical engineering undergraduate myself, I find myself competing against 300 other students in the same cohort. But whether all 300 of us go on to work as engineers is another question. I have friends who are currently on an entrepreneurial stint in Silicon Valley under the NUS Overseas College programme who are more interested in joining the marketing industry in the future. Looking at the statistics provided by my department, 25 per cent of the batch that graduated in 2014 are working in non-engineering sectors such as finance and management. True, this is only a small sample of only chemical engineers, and so might not be representative.

Another factor against going into the industry. When I applied to do my degree back in 2011, the median salary of a chemical engineer was $3,500 while that of a NUS business graduate was $3,600. Fast forward 4 years and now that I am in my penultimate year of study, the median salary of a chemical engineer has dropped to $3,200 while that of a NUS business graduate is still at $3,500. It is no wonder that some of my friends are considering joining the finance and management industries.

The discussion about the lack of engineers also ignores one fundamental aspect of engineering degrees: Each major is specialised. Although I take courses in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics like my friends in mechanical and environmental engineering, the focus is different. Trust me, we tried to study together for finals but the content and depth covered varies and we ended up getting more confused instead. Then again, the lack of engineers felt by LTA isn’t about to filled by chemical engineers or environmental engineers. More civil engineers are needed.

Based on data published by NUS, the number of civil engineering undergraduates has grown from 382 in 2011 to 476 in 2014, to about 9 per cent of the current engineering cohort. For NTU, the number grew from 428 to 464 in the same time period, to about 4 per cent of the current engineering cohort. In comparison, degrees such as chemical and mechanical engineering in NUS account for close to 20 per cent each of engineering undergraduates. Mechanical engineering in NUS has always been a popular choice due to the many specialisations available, chief of which is aerospace engineering. NTU has its own aerospace engineering degree which is greatly sought after and they currently have 385 undergraduates. One of the main reasons for its popularity is the high salary. The emphasis on growing our aerospace sector has led to aerospace engineers commanding a starting pay of $3,800 in 2011 to $4,070 in 2014.

Having spoken to my engineering friends, I realised another possible reason civil engineering might not be popular is that it is not “sexy”. They spend their laboratory sessions mixing concrete while my friends in biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering get to experiment with 3D-printers. I think the stigma that surrounds civil engineering is accentuated by the endless construction going on. With every yellow hard hat that we see, civil engineering gets just that little bit less sexy. It is after all, an engineering job that requires a lot of perspiring at work sites.

To address the shortfall, Mr Khaw has to encourage more students to pick up civil engineering and then convince them to stay on civil engineers. It is by no means an easy feat, and would require heightened coordination between the Manpower, Education ministries and the Universities. Time for the cabinet cluster approach to work! But I guess that this is a problem out of my control and I should worry about myself instead. With graduation on the horizon, I am beginning to get antsy about my future career prospects. For now, I think I will stick to being a chemical engineer. As my friend once said, “I have already slogged so hard for the degree, I need to use it once.”


http://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/singap...cid=spartandhp


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