17 April 2009 - Speech By Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications And The Arts, As Guest Of Honour At The Integrated Infocomm Scholarship Award Ceremony 2009, Asian Civilisations Museum
Speech By Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications And The Arts, As Guest Of Honour At The Integrated Infocomm Scholarship Award Ceremony 2009, Friday, 17 April 2009 At 4.35 pm, Asian Civilisations Museum
Scholars and parents,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
1. It gives me great pleasure to join you today at the inaugural award ceremony for the Integrated Infocomm Scholarship. I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to the 20 promising young men and women, who have been selected out of the 147 applications, to be the first recipients of this scholarship. This is a new programme for outstanding students to pursue infocomm courses from polytechnic right through to university.
Infocomm Studies Is The Right Choice That Leads To Multifaceted Jobs
2. I must also congratulate all of you for making the right decision in selecting infocomm as your choice of study. Infocomm courses are intellectually stimulating, and promises an exciting and varied programme of study which requires both a creative and strong analytical mind. In the course of your studies, you will find yourselves sharpening your problem-solving and logical thinking skills, which will be useful as you navigate through a challenging infocomm career.
3. A key feature of this scholarship is the opportunity to undertake valuable industry attachments at major organisations both locally and overseas. Such attachments allow you to put into practice all that you have learnt, enable you to acquire scientific and technical knowledge, and challenge you to think innovatively. More importantly, it will hone your inter-personal skills, which is critical in the infocomm industry as infocomm professionals never work alone. You will learn the importance of teamwork and how to work with people from different cultures and skill sets, whether you are developing a piece of software, coming up with a business-IT solution, or maintaining a complex IT system. Such ‘people skills’ are something that cannot be taught in the classroom.
Infocomm Drives Innovation In Wider Economy
4. I am sure all of you are excited by what this new scholarship has to offer. Simply said, it empowers you to leverage on the potential of infocomm to make a difference in our lives. Infocomm is at the heart of most things that we do. It is the driver of innovation and discovery in many sectors, ranging from medicine, science and engineering, to business, defence and communications. Advances in these areas would be limited without the power of computing. With this scholarship, I am confident that you can help shape the future of infocomm. In fact, the founders of leading infocomm companies such as HP, Yahoo, Google and Facebook, were all young, energetic infocomm students like you. They have created global products and services to improve the lives of many people and revolutionalised the way we communicate. I encourage you to challenge yourself and push the boundaries of innovation. Set your sights high and who knows, we may well have another Jerry Yang or Mark Zuckerberg equivalent amongst us.
IDA's Talent Management Framework
5. When you move on to university, you will also benefit from IDA’s Talent Management Framework, which will develop our scholars to be ‘industry-ready’, over and above academic knowledge acquisition. Under this framework, scholars can take up developmental courses to acquire relevant industry and up-to-date skills through certification and courses. You will also be invited to attend industry thought-leadership seminars, conferences and networking opportunities with key industry leaders. This will give you a better understanding of the infocomm industry as well as the trends and challenges facing the industry.
6. I hope you are as excited as I am about the potential of infocomm. Let me congratulate all of you once again, and I wish you all every success in your studies and an exciting and enriching infocomm career ahead. Thank you.
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