Singapore’s Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean (and ex-Minister for Education) made a speech at the recent Entrepreneur of the Year Awards held on 11 October, excerpted here by The Straits Times in an article entitled “Will more varsity grads mean fewer entrepreneurs”.
Here’s a comment he made that is food for thought:
“Our graduates, whether from our ITE, polytechnics or universities, must not only have the foundation and the factual knowledge that our education system is so good at equipping them with. They must also have the customer education, creativity and innovation, flexibility, and risk-taking mindset that will require to succeed in the new world. Whether they are running their own businesses as entrepreneurs, working in a corporation, or in the public sector, they must have this entrepreneurial mindset.”
Well said, Minister, except it seems like a major admission that the local education system is weak in creating entrepreneurs. Perhaps we are better at creating cogs to fit into the vast machinery that is the Singapore system, as opposed to hungry entrepreneurs willing to think out of the box.
