I think I have never done a response to any online articles on this blog, so here's a first. So my friend showed me an article yesterday and it appeared on my facebook newsfeed again today, so I decided I should blog it.
The article in question: Youths are holding back Singapore’s startup scene
(The original author (Qin En)'s main point are in bold)
1. Our youths do not have market-relevant skills and experiences to do their job.
If you read the details under this point, you'll realise that Qin En is talking about interns. The point is a bit misleading considering the youths here are interns (only, at least from what I gathered), and do no include school dropouts (either those who dropout to start a business or for some other reason). My main argument: Isn't that what an internship is for. An internship pays you lesser than a regular job, not because you do not have the skills but because you are learning as you work and might not be as qualified as another person, say a graduate, YET. That's why you intern. Plus, in school you are learning about theoretical knowledge and an internship is the only place you can put this knowledge into practice. How would you know that s/he cannot do it if you don't give him/her a chance and purely dismissing the fact that he has no relevant experience as being not suitable for the job? Plus if you don't give others a chance, how on earth are you going to have youths with the relevant background.
2. Youths are stuck in the academic-oriented mindset and are not ready for the jump to the working world.
I'm assuming the youths here means youths in school. Else how would you have an academic-oriented mindset. But the main reason for us having this mindset is because our first job is going to be based on our academic results. Too much emphasis is on results in the working world. Candidates are selected based on CAP/GPA to be called down for interviews. If you have a lousy CAP/GPA, chances are, you might not get your dream job (especially if your dream job is very popular). So who is to be blamed for this, the youths?
Yes I admit, grades are not everything. However, the sad fact is that the better your grades are, the chances of you getting a highly paid job is higher. In today's society where the inflation is crazy, money is literally (almost) everything. The prices of owning a car, house is so high. The price of transport is going up. Of course people would want to earn more.
Actually not only jobs. In NUS, students with higher CAP are given priority in choosing their final year projects. And I think the following will be true for many other universities that those with better grades will get the chance to go on the exchange programme.
3. Schools and universities are ineffectively promoting the entrepreneurial attitude.
Yes I agree with this. Then again, as per point 1, if you don't give students an opportunity to intern at a start up, where's the action? Or rather, how to learn which action to take?
4. Internships are the gateway to action-oriented entrepreneurship.
There you go. Give people an opportunity even if you don't already have relevant skills.
My opinion is that most youths are money-minded, or to put it in another way, concerned about their salary. Start-ups offer youths little salary and hence many shy away from them. Those with higher CAPs join bigger companies that can pay then more. Who doesn't want a stable and comfortable life right? Unless you are really passionate and business and all, I doubt you'll be able to survive in a start-up, especially when the future is uncertain for you. I don't think it's the lack of skills that is holding back the startup scene in Singapore, but instead because our generation wants comfort.
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