Industry & Career Services
Bringing the Industry to the Campus
To keep abreast of evolving technologies and changing trends in the global market, RP continues to leverage on the extensive experience and knowledge of our strategic partners to add realism to our learning environment. Several collaborations were signed with industry partners during the year, paving the way for our staff and students to experience more holistic training and education.
In particular, two notable collaborations with the industry resulted in the setting up of the Agilent-RP Wireless Solution Lab and the RP Enterprise Computing Learning Centre. The former is a partnership between Agilent and RP that allows the institution to experiment and develop new ideas in wireless solutions. The Lab serves as a fully integrated wireless system platform for the design, modelling, simulation, verification and testing of advanced wireless systems. This marks Agilent’s first fully integrated wireless laboratory with an IHL in Southeast Asia.
The latter is a partnership between RP and IBM to train students and industry practitioners in mainframe education. Costing some S$6.3 million, the RP Enterprise Computing Learning Centre is equipped with an IBM System z890 mainframe. The plans will be supported by IBM via the provision of training, curriculum resources and collaboration opportunities with mainframe end-users.
Widening our reach beyond the domain of science and technology, RP also inked an MOU with the National Arts Council (NAC) to establish a regional arts centre at Woodlands. The collaboration is aimed at cultivating an arts audience of some 30,000 youths and residents in this part of the island over the next two years through a variety of arts events and programmes. The partnership will also allow RP students to participate in NAC-organised festivals such as the Singapore Biennale, Singapore Arts Festivals and Singapore Writers Festival.
During the year, RP received close to S$400,000 worth of sponsorships through endowment, scholarships, bursaries and book prizes from our industry partners, foundations, associations, IGs, as well as generous individuals.
Advancing the Careers of Students
A new Student Career Centre awaited RP at the sprawling Woodlands campus. Comprising a 50-seater seminar space, a coaching corner conducive for career coaching sessions and a range of career and industry resources, the Centre is a resource haven for students who wish to seek information and guidance for their future careers.
RP strives to cultivate strong working relationships with the industry with the strategic objective of providing abundant employment opportunities for our students. Our industry partners have access to a comprehensive range of value–added career services which facilitate the recruitment process. Popular services include job postings on RP’s Student Career Portal, industry road shows, career talks and job matching.
The RP Career Fair 07 received strong support from the industry. Thirty-five employers from a wide range of sectors offered over 4,000 job opportunities to RP’s graduating cohort. Some of the high profile employers that participated in the Career Fair included Chartered Semiconductor, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Plant Engineering, Singapore Aero Engine Services, Singapore Airlines, Republic of Singapore Air Force, STATS ChipPAC, Tech Semiconductor, Toll (Asia) and the Singapore Police Force. An overwhelming 2,500 job applications were collected by companies and over 50 in-campus interviews were conducted during the fair.
RP also collaborated with JobsFactory to support a joint polytechnic career fair at the Suntec Convention Centre. The fair generated a strong turnout of 20,000 job seekers.
To enhance the employability of our students, RP conducted a series of hands-on career workshops such as resume writing and interviewing skills to empower students with career skills and knowledge. RP also proactively reached out to prospective employers and engaged them in a series of on-campus activities such as career exploration talks and industry road shows. With over 15 talks and 10 workshops organised this year, the on-campus activities gave our students on-the-ground appreciation of the job market and industry trend developments. Invited companies included AMD, Accenture, Chartered Semiconductor, CISCO and UTAC.