New Earn and Learn Programmes offer poly design graduates chance to get specialist diploma
The new SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programmes for the design industry was officially launched on May 19, 2016. Photo: Damien Teo
SINGAPORE — While most people are getting ready for a good night’s sleep, Ms Nur Amirah Juhari, 20, would make her way downtown to a watch shop at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. The Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) graduate would then help contractors as they rearrange the goods in the store to fit the upcoming fashion season.
Ms Amirah sometimes works till about 1am to ensure that the store’s interior design is done up, and that the seasonal products are modified and tally with the many brands licensed to be sold by the watch company, keeping in mind each of the brand’s separate identity and aesthetic.
A fresh graduate with a diploma in visual communication, Ms Amirah is one of 34 participants in the new SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programmes for the design industry.
Officially launched on Thursday (May 19) by the polytechnic and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, the programmes are offered only to fresh diploma graduates in spatial design and those in visual communication.
The graduates will go through a 12-month work-study programme, which includes a day of classroom learning every Monday. They will join one of 25 companies — 12 that cater to spatial design graduates and 13 for visual communication graduates — working as junior designers and helping to handle projects with clients.
Upon completing the programme, they will receive a specialist diploma in their area of study.
Speaking about her experience so far, Ms Amirah said that what she learnt during her polytechnic days are more general compared to the work experience offered by the watch company now.
She likes that the studying happens during working hours and not after work at night, though there are challenges, including keeping up with the work requirements set by the company and learning to think critically “on the spot”.
Another participant, Ms Jingle Goh, a spatial design graduate now working with Kriste Designs firm, said that the programme is a good platform for them to brush up on their skills. The work-study model is also a good way to “gain experience with guidance”, she added.
Ms June Lee, design director at branding and design consultancy Immortal the Design Station, hopes that the programme will help to develop the appointed graduate to be sharper in developing design ideas. The goal is for the graduate to be able to manage a project himself by the end of the 12 months.
Mr Kef Tan, manager at Unity Interior Design company, said that in interior design, “every different age has (its) own perspective about space” and it is good to have new blood through this programme.
At the launch event, Ms Low Yen Ling, Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Trade and Industry, said that the fast-flowing design sector should no longer be just a “side show” and that with the Government’s vision for Design 2025, Singapore should nurture design as a national competency.
“We need to continue to create a variety of pathways to deepen the skill sets of our design workforce and also build up relevant work competencies in order to meet the demands and challenges of the future economy,” she said.
