Fresh Batch Of Polytechnic Graduates Equipped For A Promising Future

Polytechnic Graduation 2020

It will be a bittersweet farewell to Singapore Sports School for 20 post-secondary student-athletes, many of whom have spent their entire teenage years as a student-athlete since Secondary One. After gaining knowledge, life skills and wonderful memories to last a lifetime, they will be stepping out to carve a future for themselves armed with their new polytechnic diploma certificate offered at Sports School. They are among the Class of 2020 who have graduated from the Diploma in Business Studies (DBS) with specialisation in Entrepreneurship conferred by Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) and Diploma in Sports and Leisure Management (DSLM) conferred by Republic Polytechnic (RP) (now changed to Diploma in Business with specialisation in Sport Management).

This is the first batch of student-athletes to have graduated from NP’s business diploma programme. The diploma programme was launched as an additional athlete-friendly post-secondary option for student-athletes in 2017.

The DBS and DSLM diploma programmes were incorporated as an education pathway within Sports School itself for aspiring athletes to benefit from long-term sporting development, while pursuing their academic aspirations. The bite-sized curriculum is taught by polytechnic lecturers within the school and allows student-athletes to enjoy flexible learning hours, close mentorship and good support.

Amabel Chua Jiaying from the Bowling Academy is one of the graduands from the first cohort of joint DBS course. Amabel, who has spent the last 7 years at Sports School, shared, “With this DBS through-train program, it really gave me the opportunity to balance both my sports and studies. The course is really flexible and the lecturers are understanding when we compete in local or overseas competitions. With the support from Sports School, the course really allowed me to pursue my sporting career as a national bowler.” Last year, Amabel won the Women's Open Masters Gold at the Philippines International Open Tenpin Bowling Championships. Amabel is intending to apply to a university to further her business studies and hopes to be an entrepreneur in future.

Shooter Mohamad Irwan Abdul Rahman credits the athlete-friendly structure of the DSLM course by RP for scoring well in sports. He has broken the national record thrice in the last four years, and won a silver and bronze medal at the 2017 and 2019 SEA Games for the 10m Men’s Air Rifle event. Despite his busy schedule, he achieved a commendable GPA of 3.58. He said, “The course is rather flexible as it allowed to take and plan my modules over a longer period. This allowed me to train more frequently, and cope with my studies at the same time. I would say that DSLM had a role to play in paving the way for regional medals at SG.” After completing his National Service, Irwan aims to attain a degree in university and continue competing at a high level in sports.

The Class of 2020 will celebrate a different kind of graduation this year as COVID-19 has upended graduation ceremonies. In these unprecedented times, graduands will receive their academic certificates via their mail instead. The news had disheartened many polytechnic graduands, including Amabel and Irwan. They have spent years preserving through the demands of sports and studies with discipline and determination, and graduation day would have marked an important milestone in their lives. However, both of them acknowledged that the priority is safety in the current situation. They have been having their own mini celebrations with family and friends to commemorate the end of an eventful chapter. Amabel shared, “Ngee Ann Polytechnic came up with cute online graduation filters for us to commemorate our graduation. Besides that, my friends and I also had zoom calls, sent e-graduation letters to each other, and delivered drinks and food to each other to serve as a substitute.”

As Education Minister Ong Ye Kung advised in an online video for this year’s ITE and polytechnic graduating cohort, students should focus on their education outcomes and how it has shaped them. He said, “What is important is what you have learned to serve others, contribute to society and support your families.” Though student-athletes may have anxieties graduating in an uncertain economic climate, Minister Ong shared a few initiatives that would support the graduating class. This includes support from the school’s education and career services, change in the admission criteria to universities to exclude O-Level results in the university admission score, and provision of two continuing education and training modules for free for all graduands to broaden their skills sets.

While the current times may look hard, the future looks bright for our post-secondary student-athletes as they have been well-prepared with skills and knowledge, and have the grit and gumption to create a promising future for themselves.

We wish them all the best in their future endeavours!