Employment and Wage Outcome of Tertiary Graduates from Private Education Institutes and Efforts to Strengthen Pedagogy Quality and Industry Relevance Over Last Three Years

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Education (a) over the last three years, what is the employment and wage outcome of tertiary graduates from private education institutes (PEI); and (b) what are the efforts to strengthen the quality of PEI pedagogy to be more industry relevant.

Mr Lawrence Wong: SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) conducts and publishes the Private Education Institution (PEI) Graduate Employment Survey (GES) annually. The PEI GES examines the employment and wage outcomes of graduates enrolled in full-time bachelor’s level External Degree Programmes (EDPs) at PEIs, six months after graduation. The objective of the GES is to provide individuals with more information in their decision-making when considering PEI programmes.

Between 2017 and 2019, graduate employment outcomes of PEI EDP graduates have remained relatively stable. On average, overall employment rate has hovered around 80%, and full-time permanent employment rates at close to 50%. Median gross monthly salary has ranged from $2650 to $2800 over the past three years (Table 1).

Under the Private Education Act administered by SSG, PEIs are required to meet baseline standards in areas such as corporate governance, quality of provisions and information transparency to protect the interest of students, in order to operate. Teachers deployed at PEIs are also required to have minimum qualifications and years of relevant working experience for the course, module or subject that they are teaching. However, SSG does not review or endorse PEIs and their programmes for academic quality or market relevance.

The onus remains on PEIs to work with industry, and regularly review their curriculum and course offerings so that students attain industry-relevant skills. For certain programmes, such as nursing and early childhood education, PEIs would have to obtain prior accreditation from the relevant regulatory bodies to ensure their courses meet the needs of the sector. SSG shares its Job-Skills insights with PEIs, so they have a better understanding of market changes and demands and raise the quality and relevance of their offerings.