Higher Education and Career Guidance

Education and Career Guidance (ECG) counselling was introduced at ACJC in 2015 through the support of MOE-trained ECG counsellors. During ECG counselling sessions, ACJC students can seek guidance about education pathways, scholarship options and career choices.

Our ECG counsellor, Ms Saira Kuttan, has had many years of experience working in institutes of higher learning (IHLs) and a career spanning over 20 years. Her most recent experience was with NTU, where she worked as the undergraduate programme Manager at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communications handling a whole range of duties from academic advising to undergraduate admissions. She is very experienced and knowledgeable on the academic requirements of the IHLs.

She visits ACJC on Mondays and Tuesdays of even-numbered weeks during the school term. During those days, Ms Saira will be stationed at the lower level of the Oldham Library. Students can make an appointment to meet Ms Saira for individual guidance or group counselling. Please click here to access the appointment form.

The HECG co-curricular programme is a 1.5 year programme comprised of a variety of learning formats.

• Classroom-based lessons are conducted based on MOE’s Character and Citizenship Education syllabus.

• ACJC’s Career and Higher Education Fair (CHEF) is an annual event provide students will the opportunity to interact with representatives from universities and scholarship. Our regular partners at CHEF include the local autonomous universities, representative bodies for overseas universities in Australia, UK, and USA as well as scholarship and higher education website Brightsparks.

• The ACJC University Forum invites a panel of ACJC alumni who represent a range of local universities. At the Forum, JC2 students’ questions about options and choices in higher education will be answered by their seniors.

• The ONE ACS Career Forum organised by the ACS Old Boys’ Association hosts the C-Suite panel discussion as well as a wide selection of career sharing session. At sharing sessions, ACS old boys from in different professions share their education and career experiences and offer advice to students.

Two rounds of Job Experience Programme (JEP) are conducted each year, during the school holidays in June and November / December. Our students choose between the school-initiated JEP where job contacts are made by the school, or self-initiated JEP where students setup their own contacts for job shadowing.

Students have had opportunities to shadow work in the sectors of law, finance, healthcare, administration in healthcare etc. We are grateful for the past / ongoing partnerships with the following organisations.

HCA Hospice Care

Orthopaedic 'A' Care Service Pte Ltd

Ng Teng Fong General Hospital

NUH Rehabilitation Centre

Gardens by the Bay

Causes for Animals (Singapore)

Lakeside Family Services Centre

United Overseas Insurance Limited

UBS Finance Academy

Reactor

Wildlife Reserves Singapore

For more information about the guidelines and registration for school/self-initiated JEP, please refer to the HECG noticeboard.

The Indicative grade profiles (IGP) released by the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) can be used as guides for students to make informed decisions during target setting and university application. IGPs are the representative grade profiles of the 10th and 90th percentile of applicants who were offered a place at the respective course in the most recent academic year of 2016/2017.

Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), and Yale-NUS College adopt a holistic approach in the admissions process. Personal qualities and unique talents that are suited for the universities’ programme is taken into consideration together with the applicants’ GCE ‘A’ level results. Please visit the universities’ website for more information.

The Scholar Development Programme provides the platform for discussion on imminent global issues, training in interview skills and leadership talks. The programme supports students’ aspirations towards top scholarships.

MOE Pre-University scholarships available to ACJC students include MOE Pre-U Scholarship, Humanities Scholarship, Music Elective Scholarship, English Language Elective Scholarship and A*STAR Science Award (JC). Students can also apply for the science research-linked scholarship programmes offered by A*STAR or DSTA.

Eligible students are strongly encouraged to apply at the start of JC1.

For more information, please visit the websites of:

The briefing slides for UCAS 2020 application can be downloaded here:

The briefing materials for the US Common Application 2020 can be downloaded here:

The College-initiated Job Experience Programme at Ng Teng Fong Hospital during the June Holidays provided me with the opportunity to work alongside with medical personnel in the Accident and Emergency department in order to better understand the nature of a doctor’s job. Throughout the three days, I was attached to different medical personnel and senior consultants and I had the opportunity to witness many emergency situations and procedures such as suturing, resuscitation etc.

I also found the work attachment to be very meaningful as I witnessed the importance of teamwork in a medical team, be it among senior and junior doctors together with the nurses, or the paramedics. I learnt that every medical personnel plays an extremely critical role in saving a person's life. This experience was a rare opportunity that allowed me to work alongside professionals in the field which helped me to better understand the profession and to truly consider if I would like to pursue medicine.

I have also learnt that the most important qualities that a doctor should possess is to be empathetic and observant. It is also very important to have the curiosity to learn beyond what is expected of you so that you can be on the frontline of the healthcare industry.

Through this internship, I am more certain about what the profession entails. I am extremely grateful to have been given such an opportunity and I will definitely recommend JEP to the juniors.

-    Stella Ferdinand, 2SA5

Singapore Medical Society of the United Kingdom Pre-University Group

Visit the SMSUK facebook (Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smsuk.jc/) for information and relevant medical news. This facebook aims to not only inform students of studying medicine/dentistry but also help you potential students prepare for the interviews. More importantly it will be used as an informal platform for students to post their questions to the SMSUK seniors or learn from their peer’s questions.

Email for Student’s Questions: Sms.unitedkingdom@gmail.com

Relevant SMSUK University representatives can be found on these links:

http://sms-uk.net/committee-details/