Expanding and deepening our impact in private education
In 2017 our plans to pivot for growth by expanding our educational offerings and increasing
our footprints beyond Singapore saw its first fruits.
Extending offerings to junior education
Backed by our experience and track record in education, we extended our educational
system downstream to include junior level education. With this, local and foreign students
have more educational pathways and the choice of a seamless articulation into higher
education tracks at SIM.
In Singapore, SIM International Academy’s (SIM IA) first cohort started classes in September. Offering the Cambridge IGCSE and International A Level programmes, it focuses on applied learning in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the Social Sciences. SIM IA is further differentiated by a faculty experienced in both local and international curricula and its unique pedagogy to nurture students as curious learners, community builders and creative leaders. We have received very positive feedback from students’ parents on the real world and holistic approach we are taking to ensure a future ready generation.
Our first foray to bring the Singapore and SIM brands of education to the region was the setting up of the Singapore (Cambodia) International Academy (SCIA) in Cambodia. Catering to students from preschool to year 12, it blends the Singapore & Cambridge curricula to offer a high standard of international education in a country where a good quality education is an important pillar of economic success. Construction works for the school are near completion and we look forward to welcoming our first cohort of students in August 2018.
Strengthening global education
In Singapore, we continue to be the leading private education institution in terms of quality, reputation and size. Despite stiffer competition for a shrinking education pie, our enrolment stood at 19,000 at the end of 2017, a 5% drop from the previous year. In 2017, we introduced 11 new programmes to meet market needs. These include an international healthcare leadership programme with University of Manchester; and an entrepreneurship and innovation programme with University of Birmingham.
We owe the success of our programmes to a strong network of more than 10 universities
and institutions from around the globe. They share our commitment and work relentlessly
with us to bring programmes of high standard, rigour and relevance to meet the needs of
industry.
Even as we continue to bring on board new partners and programmes, we are strengthening our relationships with existing partners. This year marked our 31st year with the University of London (UOL) and 30th year with RMIT University.
With the setting up of the UOL-SIM GE Regional Centre and expansion of the RMIT office here at SIM, we look forward to further collaboration in growing our reach in Singapore and across the Southeast Asian region.
Achieving positive students’ outcomes
Academically, our students have done very well. Among the achievers, 225 or almost 11% of
UOL students graduated with First Class Honours, a record-breaker for the fifth year
running. With this, SIM continues to be the institution with the highest score of First Class
Honours for UOL’s programmes worldwide. Of the graduates from the University at Buffalo
programmes, 300 or 63% graduated with Latin honours with 15% of them achieving summa
cum laude, a commendable achievement indeed.
Our investments in giving students a rich campus life and building strong networks with
industry and employers have led to strong students’ outcomes. Our graduates continued to
enjoy good employability and are valued by employers. In the 2017 graduate employment
survey, 82.7% of our graduates found job within six months of completing their degree
studies. More than half of our graduates also received at least two full-time job offers, a
testament to employers’ recognition of the quality of SIM graduates. However, we also saw a
slight increase in graduates opting for part-time work, many of whom did so by choice to try
out if the field is suitable or to start a business. This flexible work trend reflects not just a
tighter job market but also a growing preference among the young to take time to discover
their passions and interests.
As we take positive strides to create a greater impact in education, we are also cognisant
of the need to innovate and embrace new ways of teaching and learning enabled by
technology. To harness the power of mobile technologies, we piloted an interactive mobile
game designed to pique students’ interest in mastering subjects on Economics and also
launched an app that delivers bite-sized learning resources to better support our faculty.
Aligning our Continuing Education and Training to meet
new needs
Building a vibrant entrepreneurship centre
Platform E, the new entrepreneurship ecosystem set up in 2016 to nurture entrepreneurs
and start-ups took off with the first cohorts of its two signature programmes - the full experience entrepreneurship programme, intensE and modular IncubatE programme. With all 55 desks in Phase one of the
co-working space at Management House leased out and the 180 desks in Phase two
expected to be completed in early 2018, the space is gearing up to be a vibrant community
of entrepreneurs.
In its first year, four start-ups have been incorporated with one receiving angel funding and
Startup SG founder grant from Tri5. Platform E also incubated and invested in two others.
Platform E’s initiatives have received strong support from many partners. The Employment
and Employability Institute, e2i has extended training grant to participants on our
programmes. Among the industry partners we are working with to identify support for
unserved niches are MEDs Technology and Providence Solutions. Both are offering
sponsorships to fund start-ups in IOT technology for urban vegetable and fish farming and in
a new platform in the human resources and tech industry.
One Maker Group has also set up a Makers’ Space within our ecosystem to support
entrepreneurs in their ideation and prototyping. A new food track is also in the works to
take the food and beverage sector to a higher level.
Refocusing CET to meet changing needs
SIM Membership which continues to offer a valuable platform for lifelong learning and
networking for executives of all levels remained relatively steady with a slight drop of about
3% to more than 36,000 individual and corporate members.
With the shifts in learning habits and needs brought about by technology, the focus for SIM
Professional Development (SIM PD) was to work with companies to offer in-house
programmes that are contextualised and customised, and to train their in-house facilitators
for long-term viability. There was also a shift to programmes that target managerial levels
and to curate more SIM PD-owned programmes to augment the current pool of expertise
and external trainers.
A three-year collaboration with the Social Service Institute, the training arm of the National
Council of Social Services, was inked to develop skills and leadership in the non-profit sector
through the organising of the Global Leader Series conference.
We were also happy to share our expertise in training management and leadership with
emerging markets. The first of these partnerships was with the Kenya Institute of
Management (KIM) in the areas of leadership, governance and management. In 2018, we will
work with KIM to organise the inaugural Kenya East Africa Immersion Programme which
aims to raise awareness of Africa as an investment destination and groom leadership for
doing business in Africa.
We will continue leveraging technology to transform training modes to meet professionals’
need for shorter, just-in-time modular learning. Pilot projects were undertaken with
technology solution providers, to deliver some of our programmes through e-platforms.
More of such digitised content and learning will be in the works to ensure we move to meet
new needs for continuing education and training.
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