In this current age of disruption, where adaptability is key to winning the war against change, PSB Academy is bringing out the big guns to equip its students adequately.
On Tuesday (23/5/17), Digital Senior has the honor to be invited to cover the official launch of the City Campus, in addition to the signing of the MOU between NTUC Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU) and PSB Academy. Here’s a few gems that we seized from interviewing Sylvia Choo, executive secretary, Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union (SISEU); Mr Christopher Chiew, 53, a wheelchair-bound Accountancy lecturer who has been teaching for 10 years;Ms Adora Sarah Chou,a PSB Academy student of 7 years and Nur Sariza, a student who is studying management and marketing:
1. Unbeatable Futuristic Campus
In this futuristic campus, where boundaries are torn down and constraints are broken out of, there is plenty to be excited about.
Picture lush turfs of artificial grass where students can chill and discuss their projects, air-conditioned smart classrooms where students can collaboratively learn and acoustically-treated seminar rooms equipped with advanced video conferencing facilities. Read more about it here.
Here, lecturer becomes facilitator and students become active learners.
According to Nur Sariza, she shares that the new smart classrooms are beneficial in that they helped her extend her attention span. With the open concept, she feels that seeing her hardworking peers positively influences her to work even harder during class, which produces better results.
2. Students-centric
It can be seen that students are at the heart of the series of initiatives by PSB Academy. Even the opening event was hosted by a PSB Academy student of 7 years, Adora Sarah Chou. She went through her diploma as well as degree programme, proudly graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce in 2016. Adora opened the ceremony by sharing the heart-warming story of how she went from a D7 in English to speaking eloquently on stage that day. She also juggled her work as radio host and studies in PSB Academy with aplomb through the support of the lecturers in school. (We have to admit that our hearts melted a little when she brought her dad on stage)
On that note, Mr Chiew, a lecturer at PSB Academy for over 10 years, offers an invaluable advice to students to get the most out of time with PSB Academy. Mr Chiew observed that the most notable trait that sets apart the more successful students from the others is the learning attitude. The ones that benefited the most from their time in PSB Academy are typically those that have a clear goal in mind despite juggling both work and studies.
3. Accessibility for the young to the old
As such, to assist the students fulfill their potential, PSB Academy is pairing up with SISEU to offer its workers a scholarship so as to help alleviate the financial burden of students so that they can concentrate on their studies.
With the signing of the SISEU-PSB AcademyScholarship MOU and the recent Eurasian Association, Yayasan MENDAKI, and SINDA Scholarship, PSB Academy has increased the multitude of comprehensive financial aids for its students. The SISEU-PSB Academy scholarship aims to encourage life-long learning and will support more than 100 NTUC SISEU workers over 3 years as they pursue their studies.
4. Studying for workers is made easier
PSB Academy recognises that higher education is not easy nor immune to disruption. So in order to overcome these challenges, PSB Academy has adjusted its teaching system to give the maximum benefits for its increasingly digital-savvy students.
Accessibility to study materials is improved by being made available both online and offline with 30% of the teaching materials being made online soon. This means a robust and seamless integrated system that the students would enjoy.
5. Integral to developing Human Capital
This drive to improving accessibility of quality education shows PSB Academy’s commitment in fulfilling the desires of workers to get the quality education that they need. This makes it complementary to SISEU’s efforts for helping its workers prepare for the future economy.
“SISEU recognises that our workforce needs to evolve to stay relevant. We are constantly exploring opportunities with employers and industry partners to make skills training and upgrading more accessible to our members. We believe that industry partnerships can help to facilitate and encourage workers to take up training. ”— Ms Sylvia Choo
Workers can be reassured that they would attain the competitive advantage that is needed in an increasingly competitive world in the long term.
6. Nimble Strategic View
In fact, with the newly built centralised campus, PSB Academy aims to develop confident, forward-thinking and well-rounded individuals who will contribute to the Industry Transformation map by creating new skill programmes. This means an increase from the currently existing programmes that range across Certificate, Diploma, Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes, in the six schools – Accounting & Finance, Business & Communications, Engineering & Technology, Life & Physical Sciences, English & Education and Postgraduate Studies.
7. Future-ready, Industry-ready
With every beginning, comes an end. When asked about what she hopes to achieve at the end of her PSB Academy journey, Nur Sariza says that she aims to become a better individual who is ready for the workforce. She believes that PSB Academy will be able to groom and equip her with the necessary skills for the future economy.
In the spirit of lifelong learning, she recognizes that learning doesn’t stop after school. Her parting advice for to-be students? “It doesn’t matter how slow you go, don’t stop.”
So why hesitate when there’s a doorway to new and better opportunities for yourself and your future in front of you? Take your student experience to the next level with PSB Academy. Be future-ready with PSB Academy, the Future Academy.
