Youths today are caught up in their studies and often struggle to see the big picture on how their choice of tetiary pathway can lead them to the career they want to pursue.
How can we guide youths on their choice of tertiary pathways?
Youths today are caught up in their studies and often struggle to see the big picture on how their choice of tetiary pathway can lead them to the career they want to pursue.
How can we guide youths on their choice of tertiary pathways?
Ascademy aims to level the playing field in higher education by creating a public alternative to private consultancy services.
The team will develop a peer-to-peer tech platform which algorithmically pairs alumni/seniors together with JC mentees. This allows them to share their knowledge of what is required to gain access to whichever tertiary pathways/careers they wish to pursue. Along with pre-existing institutional partners, Ascademy aims to onboard more users to broaden the platform’s network effect.
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
They do not do enough to highlight that the universe of opportunities goes beyond what we expect and know. Insufficient focus on exploration and bias toward options.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
Silos and bubbles, given that seniors and alumni from certain schools are more likely to take certain paths.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
Still a very traditional model that helps you look for conventional jobs. I mean.. what if I want to be a tatoo artist
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
The alumni may not be experienced in their career yet.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Other
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
We are often unaware that these exist or how to reach out.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
Will there be a human approval after the algorithm has selected the pairings?
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
They are often very confusing due to the overwhelming amount of information they have.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
The cost and sustainability.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
only limited slots
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
what are the incentives for corporations to join this
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
They are only available to people who are seeking for guidance.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
Trust, expertise and relevancy of the mentoring program to the youths and if youth even know that they should go seek for it.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
They do not tell me how the content learnt in school is related to relevant industries.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
The industry I\'m interested in might be too small in Singapore and so there might not be mentors who would participate in this project
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Other
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
In school we used to have a career advisor assigned to a group of students. However, this career advisor doesn\'t come to us to share more with us. Only when we have a question about a pathway, then the career advisor would be there to answer us. So these guidance is pretty much absent.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
I don\'t see much of a concern, this is really a good direction that the team has chosen.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
school career centre and groups like advisory
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
there is a chance that students may not know which pathway to pursue
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly,Other
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
Not much range of options
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
Whether this service would be free
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
Not many are willing to share honest opinion about the industry
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
Incentive for industry players to give back to society ! Could be make fuss free and done via zoom . Not limited to local context.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
school counsellors - they seem to focus more on those with better grades, private network - if no such network to start with, it\'s tough!
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
favour towards certain known industries (during my university days) - banking / legal / FMCG
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
limited mentors and career avenues in a way that they are insufficient
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
The initial knowledge is never important as all skills can be learnt if there is interest. Having the exposure to a skill and allowing continued training with quality teachers will help students do better in their area of interest and help them to discover their strengths better.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly,Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
They don\'t teach what is actually necessary in workforce
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
Instead of teaching stuff that won\'t be used when working, host programmes that teaches about career
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
Knowledge learnt during school are not very applicable to what i can apply to my work
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
I love the knowledge sharing platform so that i can learn from other\'s knowledge and experience.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
I feel that they are limited in the sense where by it is not tailored to pathways or industries, so most of the time the platforms will have a pool of mentors in which mentees can choose who they want as a mentor to network and learn from.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
It might be difficult to onboard mentors and institutions alike as many of them have already formed partnerships with existing platforms, also some mentors might have backgrounds in many areas so sieving them and putting them into one particular pathway might be challenging
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Bi-monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
I find current career guidance not helpful in matching the interest of the individual with the studies they desire to learn. Most career guide just share on the subject pre-requisites, presumed job roles, salary range without taking into account the individual passion and interest. Also the limited spots and grade requisites are too stringent for people to succeed in life. I think student can pursue their interest and nature should run its course into whether they will still continue it when they graduate and how they can further improve themselves from there.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
The initial knowledge is never important as all skills can be learnt if there is interest. Having the exposure to a skill and allowing continued training with quality teachers will help students do better in their area of interest and help them to discover their strengths better.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Monthly
In response to "How are current education/career guidance avenues you are exposed to, limited in what they can offer?"
Many of them require quite a lot of self initiative. You don\'t know what you don\'t know so the barrier to access can be quite high.
In response to "What would be your main concern with the approach adopted?"
The current approach seems focused just on subjects (e.g. Chemistry, Biology etc.) Would it be possible to expand it to careers/jobs? Since one\'s career is rarely ever going to be cut so cleanly.
In response to "How often would you engage in such a mentorship program?"
Other
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
What value-add does a peer-to-peer tech platform offer to the process of matching mentors to mentees? If there is value in encouraging youth to explore alternative pathways that have not been taken before, especially given the uncertainty of the future of work, how would the team mitigate the selection bias of the proposed approach since the matching function is contingent on career pathways of existing seniors and alumni?
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
I thought it\'s a good initiative to get alumni to give back to the school. It is also a good way for alumni to stay connected.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
As mentioned in the first question, it is important to make known that these avenues are available to begin with.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
Even though they are alumnis , I believe there might not be any value that the they will be gaining from the mentorship. So you guys could think about ways you can incentivise these alums. Even if they agree to mentor out of their sheer will , they might find it easy to withdraw or atop whenever they want due to the lack of incentives for them. You don’t have to necessarily pay them but there could be any benefits that they reap from this mentorship.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
can provide insights into that particular industry/job role
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
Send emails to schools abouAscademy to let more students know of Ascademy.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
I appreciate that the team is attempting to bridge the gap between JC and career/tertiary pathways. One concern that I have is that students may need more exposure before deciding on a specific pathway. Maybe one thing that the team can consider is having content or programs for youths to understand more about different pathways and careers and tertiary education choices. Also, the team can explore how this differs from existing mentorship programmes by researching about the current landscape and see if there is any duplication of efforts. There are some groups and organisations doing great work in the mentorship space but perhaps the JC to Uni and Career pathway might be an unsolved gap!!
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
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In response to "How Can We Improve?"
Definitely need a data base pf participants and could be alot of administrative effort to gather and issue invite for people to start mentorship program
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
Good to differentiate between Academics (Studies / Curriculum related) and Career advice.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
I feel that this is a good idea as this is targeted towards JC mentees by providing them with access to knowledge and mentorship on their designated pathway in higher education which is rare as many platforms nowadays only target university students and fresh graduates. This could be the differentiating factor to kickstart many aspiring JC students who do not know what pathway to embark on currently. I think one way you can improve on is to form partnerships with different other career services where they have a plethora of mentors so that you can onboard them as well onto your platform seamlessly without having to search for your own pool of mentors.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
I think they can open up the sharing approach to a more classroom approach sharing so more mentees can benefit from learning of their interest from different Seniors and be able to check out more subjects that the Mentors can share with them to see which one best matches their interest. The Mentors can have weekly half hour sharing to open up their area of speciality to all interested students. It can also be viewed online so more students can learn from their seniors a variety of subjects.
In response to "How Can We Improve?"
I wonder if this current platform will end up being a platform to match tutors to tutees since it isn\'t so much about career choices or aspirations but rather specific subjects.