SUTD’s through-train programme helped expand her career options
Lianhe Zaobao, 22 Nov 2020, 新科大直通课程 助她扩大职业选项 (translation)
Having always had an interest in engineering, after Pei Jinling graduated from junior college, she checked out various similar engineering courses in the local universities, and finally settled on enrolling in the Singapore University of Technology and Design’s (SUTD) technology entrepreneurship programme. She felt that such a programme would help develop both her technology and business acumen and open more career options for her.
Jin Peiling (23 years old), who will be graduating next year, is currently studying Engineering Systems and Design under the SUTD Technology Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP). STEP students major in one of the university’s basic programmes/pillars and will study in Singapore for the first three years of the programme. In the fourth year, they will have the opportunity to go to USA’s University of California, Berkeley and China’s Zhejiang University to study more entrepreneurship and business related courses as well as understand the start-up environments in these countries.
In January this year, she and her fellow students flew to the USA for their studies. However, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, they were ‘called back' to return earlier. They continue their business studies at Berkeley, Zhejiang University and Tsinghua University online.
STEP is a through-train programme that allows students to obtain a Master's degree directly after completing their Bachelor degree. She has to complete her Master thesis with engineering as the main topic, and she also has to ensure that the market research data and content has to be industry relevant.
During the interview, Jin Peiling said: “Besides engineering, I am also exposed to business and marketing courses, which help me to better understand how to present business proposals. I think interdisciplinary learning is very important. Some people may think that interdisciplinary studies will result in a lack of depth of learning in certain areas as after all, university class hours are limited. However, I think as long as we are interested, we can study outside of class. There is still room for learning after entering the workplace, because the work environment changes rapidly. Therefore, I think it is good to study a wide range of topics in university first, so that you can have a broader perspective.”
Already on the lookout for a job, Jin Peiling used herself as an example, saying that she has expanded the scope of job opportunities she was looking at, not only focusing on technology and engineering related companies, but also looking at management trainee programmes in the financial sector.
