Trackback from Conspiracy Penguins:

When you were 16, you were told by your parents to stay in school. If you are twenty-three, doing a postgraduate course, your parents are screaming, "Why are you still studying? Go out and start a family. When I was your age, I had you!"...

Trackback from SG Entrepreneurs: Comments to The Life Sciences Conundrum :

There is a problem with the students being coerced or social engineered. ...

Trackback from Molly Meek: Nightmare Hub:

Comments from Mollymeek...

you are as valuable(in terms of dollars) as the consumer says you are. unfortunately, the average consumer do not earn enough to ensure you earn enough too!

The problem will escalate as more and more consumers become penny smart.Then, the real slaughtering will get even worse????

Trackback from Takchek: Life Sciences Hub, or Hype?:

The earlier version needs to be deleted. This is the correct one. Apologies....

One way to solve this over-supply: The graduates have to go overseas to seek opportunities.

I once talked to a fellow full-time NSman, who told me he had a diploma in Biotechnology. "Wow, good diploma, leh," I remarked. He laughed and shook his head. "That's what everyone thinks... why should they employ me when they can get someone of equivalent qualifications for a lower wage?"

I realise it's really the hype of life sciences that the government has been creating for the past half-decade that had gotten into me. Darn, at the rate the life sciences sectors were being so encouraged, we should have realised there were never going to be enough jobs!

You sucker!!!

Well I got suckered too when they told me that engineering was the future. There are suckers everywhere!!!

They werent totally wrong. Cultural engineers will always be in demand
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`Unless you have a descendant, you may end up with a smaller voice than naturalised immigrants in deciding and shaping the long-term destiny of Singapore`

Only your family members are obliged to tell you the truth and look out for your interests. You cant possibly predict whats going to be in demand. But thats no excuse to let another person who is equally clueless decide what path you should take
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`The agencies said that although they can hire women 18 years old and above, they prefer women in their early 20s as younger women are less knowledgeable`

Trackback from Hieroglyphics by Happenchance:

It is like being in the movie Singapore Dreaming with you and the people who graduated with you a hybrid between the graduate who can't get a job and the ex-army regular who can't sell insurance for nuts....

It is true that anything short of a PhD in the life sciences, you are pretty much consigned to washing test tubes, or doing other low level jobs that the PhD holders don't want to do. And, you do the hard work, the doctorates get the most out of it because eventually, it's his/her name on the piece of research. You'll be lucky to get even a footnote.

I think the Singapore government should stop thinking that everyone can be a Bill Gates (back before the dot com bubble burst) or a Nobel Medicine prize winner (now with the hyped up life science craze).

Trackback from Simple is the Reason of My Heart: To Engineer is Human:

"That's the problem with the management engineering approach of the authorities. It is not only human but lack of innovation itself. Using an non-innovative approach to generate innovation is nothing but an oxymoron."...

"Using an non-innovative approach to generate innovation is nothing but an oxymoron."

Yeah man. It's just like that bloody Darwin and his evolution thingy, saying that intelligent beings have no intelligent designer.

Creationism rocks!

It's like those creative thinking courses the stat-boards put their staff through. You know, directors brandishing their latest material and telling their subordinates that must "follow every single step listed here" so as to work creatively. ;-)

Actually I do think that being creative is very simple. It is so simple that you can list down the rules on 1 sheet of paper. I will not criticise stat boards for using this approach because it's feasible.

The real issue is that they never follow it through, as in they're incapable of following something that can be written down on a sheet of paper.

And they're highlighting this problem only now?
I saw this problem a few years back when the life science intake alone was larger than the entire school of business intake at nus. To put so much empahsis on 'life science research' even at secondary sch level is unrealistic simply because no one will hire you to do research unless you have a PhD, which probably 95% (a modest guess) of all life science students will not get.

Trackback from Chronicle sof The Hand:

Gahmen hype are like pimples. You pop one and another two grows to take its place overnight. And like popping pimples, its ugly and its painful, it leaves a scar but you can’t help doing it because it feels damn good. ...

Trackback from SG Entrepreneurs: Further Thoughts to “The Life Sciences Conundrum”:

SGE receive an email from one of our readers with a global perspective on the issue of internships and we discuss the bleak picture painted by Robin Tan (a life sciences headhunter who I happen to know)....

Salesman boleh! Let us all be salesmen and women!

Trackback from Be an engineer.:

Be a civil or structural engineer...

Trackback from the-double-0-project.net:

There needs to be a sizeable pool of suitably educated grads if we are to become a biomedical hub. If jobs are going to be created in the industry, I would think it is only fair to let Singaporeans know of such an opportunity. ...

i still recall the exchange between 2 NTU professor and MOM minister over "sensitive" employment data...

is it becos the employment data was not make available to the Uni for them to make good decision on the number of intake?

So it isn't that bio-med students don't have a future - just they need a PhD to have one.

Having done through the crap that was the dot.com boom (remember how it was "the next big thing" in the govt's eyes during then?), I do worry for fresh bio-med grads. It's obvious not many can afford to obtain a PhD, and if things were to go the way of the IT industry here, how long before they get displaced by cheaper foreigners? And let's not forget that bio-med is even more niched than IT.

Prostitution remains a viable option for the physically attractive
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`They are generally after Singapore applicants who are in their 20s, tall, athletic and confident, but most will accept applications from any Asian women, the ads claim`

a good qn will be...

is it gov's responsibility to protect the local job market before opening up to FTs when that industry is still not mature....

or is gov's high priority to protect the profit margin of GLC or big cooperate (Cheap labour)?

nooooo

their number one priority is to protect their No. 1 salary!!

Wash test tube is also a skill ok? A researcher is like a team leader. He/She needs a great team to do an excellent job, ie a successful project, publish good papers. Of course, he/she can independently do the research alone but surely 2 pairs of hands work faster than one right? If everyone is leading, who are left to follow. The followers are equally important. Technician jobs are important too. Even PhD holders can only know that much. They need to employ the help of technicians at times too. Not every single perosn have the time and financial ability to earn a PhD. Technicians should be valued too. They should get a reasonable pay as well. They do OT very often too. In research, 90% of the time is failed experiments. Not many people have the motivation and determination to keep trying. We should applaude the technicians for that.

is researching the only way out for life science students?

Its the only dignified way to channel their talents. Not everyone is willing & capable of refining the white stuff
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刘项原来不读书

I remember that many years ago the same thing happened, with the lawyers and doctors too. Suddenly there is a need for them and the Uni are pushing them out like cartons, and then it hits the wall that there 'maybe' too many.

Trackback from Singapore Angle: Is Social Engineering still appropriate for Singapore?:

The final piece to the puzzle which I have been planning to write....