Creating more opportunities for all our youths to fulfil their potential

Chairman of the Board of Governors of Republic Polytechnic, Mr Richard Seow

Mr Yeo Li Pheow, Principal and CEO,

Distinguished Guests, Parents and Graduands,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. A very good afternoon to all of you and I am very happy to be here to share the joy of the graduands who are here this afternoon. My heartiest congratulations to all of you on the successful completion of your diplomas! Well done!

2. I also want to recognise your parents, your family members, loved ones, as well as your teachers and lecturers who are here, all who have given you unwavering support and invaluable guidance to help our graduands achieve what you have this afternoon. Let us take this opportunity to show our appreciation to all of them for contributing to your achievements in this education journey.

3. Today, all of you enter a new phase in your lives. You will be leaving behind the familiar, and stepping into a different world. It may be strange and disorienting at first. But I hope you will see this as the start of new possibilities. The best years of your lives are ahead of you, and your education at RP has equipped you with a good foundation for moving forward.

Pursuing opportunities, meeting challenges

1. The government is committed to creating more opportunities for all of you to fulfil your potential, to pursue your dreams and to follow your interests in diverse fields. Some of you want to continue your education in a university. So we are expanding university places, especially for our polytechnic graduates.

2. As many of you all know, we have recently made SIT our 5th autonomous university. So SIT will now be able to confer degrees in its own name. It already has campuses in all of the polytechnics, as well as degree tie-ups with world-class overseas universities, like the University of Glasgow which is based here. In fact, I understand that some of you have already been admitted to the University of Glasgow's latest degree programme – Bachelor of Science with Honours in Computing Science – which commenced here in RP last year, and it will continue to have more programmes as well, including other possibilities both in RP as well as other polytechnics. 

3. Besides SIT, we are also making UniSIM our sixth publicly-funded university. It will have its own full-time degree programmes, to complement its existing part-time offerings, and will also host our third and latest Law School. We now have six publicly-funded universities. Besides NUS, NTU and SMU, we also have SUTD, SIT and UniSIM which will offer more university places for Singaporeans. And so for those who are intending to further your studies, you will find that there are many more opportunities open to you, with more degree programmes across our 6 universities catered to different abilities and different interests.

4. Some of you may choose to work first. And indeed if you choose to do so, there are also many exciting work opportunities available, especially in the business, financial and infocomm industry. The Government has been stepping up its investments in infocomm technologies. We are fostering a more vibrant start-up ecosystem in infocomm, media and design. We want to take full advantage of new technologies like fibre and wireless network, video sensors and cameras, and robotics so that we can develop new applications that will improve our lives. And that's why we are putting together an Infocomm Media Masterplan to map out the different ways in which we can harness these technologies to make Singapore a Smart Nation.

5. These are very ambitious long term plans. But our ability to realise these ambitious plans depends ultimately on our people. And that is why we need good engineers and specialists who are not only familiar with new technologies, but who also understand the human demands and trends. In other words, we want people who are not only good in IT, but who can apply IT into ways that make a difference in people's lives. And that requires skills and experience. So I hope all you will continue to develop your competencies and skills when you enter the workforce. Remember that learning doesn't stop when you graduate. What you learn today may well be obsolete in a few years' time. But if you build on the strong foundations you now have to continually upgrade your skills and expertise, then you will be able to stay abreast of changing industry demands.

6. The government will help you in this journey of lifelong learning. We've built up a strong system of Continuing Education and Training (CET) and we are continuing to invest in this system to make it better. There are many CET programmes that you can tap on. And for the fresh graduands, one example is the Company-Led Training Programme by the Infocomm Development Authority. This is a programme that gives you the chance to work with industry leaders like Google, IBM and Microsoft, and you can sign up for a 1 year training duration with these companies which will mentorship and overseas attachment opportunities. And this is just one example, and there are many programmes you can take on and I would encourage all of you to take advantage of these opportunities to realise your aspirations for a fulfilling career.

Excellence in all areas

1. As you enter this next phase of your life journey, I would also like to encourage you to remember the life lessons that you have learnt while at school. These include resilience, passion for what you do, and caring for others. Resilience has been built up over your school life, such as when you put in hours of research at the library, or worked hard over long hours to complete your term paper. In facing those tough times, you have built up a greater ability to deal with the challenges to come. 

2. One of your schoolmates exemplifies such resilience. Foong King Yi will be receiving her Diploma in Business Applications today. King Yi has dyslexia, so that makes it more difficult for her compared to her peers. But she overcame this challenge with determination and strong support from friends and family, and was awarded the Microsoft YouthSpark Scholarship last year and she has graduated and done well for herself and her family. So well done to King Yi. She proves that you can do well no matter what your circumstances are, if you are resilient and if you are prepared to work hard and put in the efforts.

3. I talked about resilience. Another trait I think we should all learn and reflect on how we can have that in our own lives is passion. Passion helps us to keep pushing the boundaries and helps us to go higher. Our national table tennis player, Isabelle Li, is somebody who epitomise passion.  She juggles her heavy academic workload with an intense training and competition schedule. It not easy to balance academics and full-time competition trainings, but Isabelle's passion for the sport helped her to keep going, and overcome the physical and mental challenges. Her hard work and passion has paid off, and she won a team gold and individual silver medal at last year's SEA Games. We will be cheering for her for next year's SEA Games which will be in Singapore. And she has graduated with the Most Outstanding Graduate of the Year Award this year. So well done to Isabelle as well!

4. Isabelle enters each competition and training session with the focus of becoming a better player, and takes every experience as a learning opportunity. She once said in an interview and I quote: “I think I have nothing to lose even in the face of failure because there is always something to learn and each failure will set me up for greater success.” Each failure will set me up for greater success - that's a mindset that all of us can learn from. It's always better to try and fail, than to fail to try. In trying, we will always make mistakes, and that's okay. But we learn from our mistakes, and we move on and we will get better.  And that's a mindset that we should think about how we can live up in our own lives.

5. Besides resilience and passion, I want to emphasise the importance of having a big heart. We can strive for success, but must not forget to show care and compassion for the people around us. Kenneth Gwee, who will be receiving the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science today, is a student with a heart for people. As President of RP's Service Learning Club, he is actively involved in community projects such as Hair for Hope and One Heart, an annual inter-polytechnic event where students interact with the elderly, and help them to purchase daily necessities. He has also been involved in Dental Mission, an international project which supports regions in desperate need of oral health and education.

6. Besides being an active volunteer, Kenneth also has an excellent academic record. In fact he will continue his commitment to care for others through his career. He has been accepted into NUS's Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and is RP's second graduate to be accepted into the faculty after Claudia See, who graduated last year. Congratulations, Kenneth!

Closing remarks

1. Kenneth, Isabelle and King Yi are all examples of how we can achieve excellence and personal growth. I am sure many of our graduands here also have inspiring stories of how you got to where you are today. I believe you all have the ability to make a mark with your diverse talents. I believe you have the energy, ideas and ability to build a better Singapore. Beyond pursuing your personal goals, we would like you to take ownership of this country. Think about how you can contribute and make Singapore even better. And that's why we are actively supporting ground-up initiatives from youths through schemes like the National Youth Fund and the Young ChangeMakers Grant. We are also launching the volunteer youth corps this year to involve more young people in meaningful projects to help the lives of others. In fact we are starting recruitment for the Youth Corps; so please sign up, do something exciting, and make a difference to our community.

2. Singapore's best years lie ahead of us, and so too are the best years of your lives. There's much that you can look forward to – many opportunities to take up, many causes you can be involved in, many things you can do and help to shape. I am hopeful and excited about what all you of can achieve in the years ahead. Congratulations once again on your graduation, and I wish you every success in your future endeavours.