New school leavers in Singapore

Abstract

This paper reports on the labour market results of a cohort of graduates from five Singapore schools representing most areas where important changes in the educational system are taking place. The graduates left school in 1966–67 and were interviewed in 1970. Many of the graduates in the cohort found jobs almost immediately upon leaving school, but some did experience a substantial period of unemployment and even more reported difficulty in finding their first job. Eventually all became employed and at the time of interview unemployment was negligible. The initial unemployment and the difficulty in finding work were not related as to whether the education was technical or academic in nature.

Income/cost ratios were calculated and used to rank the schools to see how they compared as social investments. Post-secondary, non-university education ranked highest, followed by secondary education with the university in third place. Within post-secondary, pre-university was a slightly better investment than the polytechnic largely because of a difference in costs. Within secondary schools there was virtually no difference between the technical secondary school, the academic secondary school and the vocational institute.