WP MP Gerald Giam of Aljunied GRC asked Education Minister Chan Chun Sing last month (26 Jul) if Singapore’s local universities have enough computer science degree places to meet the demand of IT industry.
Mr Giam said that he asked the question in Parliament in response to what Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said early last month (6 Jul) that in the IT sector alone, 6,000 jobs remain unfilled. Tan told Parliament then that Singapore currently does not have enough locals to fill the IT jobs available.
“With this in mind, I asked the Minister for Education some questions regarding the number of Singaporean students admitted to computer science degree courses at local universities,” Mr Giam explained.
Mr Giam asked:
- How many Singaporean students have applied for computer science degrees in each Autonomous University in each of the last 10 years;
- Of these, how many have been offered admission in each year and each university;
- Why has the number of local graduates holding computer science degrees been insufficient to meet demand in the local IT sector; and
- What plans have been considered to increase the intake of computer science students to meet industry demand for tech talent.
In his reply, Chan said that the Ministry of Education (MOE) has increased the number of places in Information & Digital Technologies (IDT) degree courses over the past 10 years. About half of the applications received are offered a place in IDT degree courses, he added.
“The number of local IDT undergraduate places rose four-fold from 800 in 2010 to 3,100 in 2020. As a proportion of all AU places, the number of IDT undergraduate places increased from 7% in 2010 to 17% in 2020.”
The breakdown of the 2020 IDT intake of 3,100 places last year was:
- ~1,200 in National University of Singapore (NUS)
- ~600 in Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
- ~500 in Singapore Management University (SMU)
- ~500 in Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT)
- ~100 in Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
- ~100 in Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS)
Chan further disclosed that some undergraduates in other courses like engineering also take up tech jobs when they graduate.
Still, Chan said, “Our industry needs cannot be met by fresh graduates alone. Even as we grow the number of IDT places overall, and encourage more students to take on second majors or minors in IDT, we have to balance this with the manpower needs of other sectors, given our shrinking birth cohorts and limited graduate supply.”
“To supplement this, MOE and sector agencies are ramping up Continuing Education and Training (CET) pathways significantly. This includes expanding TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) programmes under IMDA, which has placed over 8,000 Singaporeans into tech jobs since its inception in 2016.”
Indeed, despite Chan’s best efforts to get more locals trained to go into IT sector, tech jobs continue to remain unfilled as told by Manpower Minister Tan.
In fact, in Parliament last month, Tan disclosed that some 25 percent of the 177,100 employment pass (EP) holders in Singapore were Indian nationals due to the “global demand and supply of tech talent”. That is to say, Indian nationals were roped in to help fill the “unfilled” places in IT jobs.
The number of Indian nationals had skyrocketed from 14 percent in 2005 to 25 percent last year in terms of proportion of EP holders working in Singapore.
“Now, is this the result of more favourable treatment for Indian EP holders due to CECA? The answer is no,” Tan assured.
Tan, however, did not disclose the proportion of Indian nationals with S Pass working here but there were 174,000 S Pass holders last year. Together with the 177,100 EP holders, there were altogether 351,100 foreign PMETs in total working in Singapore last year.
