Many of you must have read at least one book by Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell, whose books The Tipping Point, Outliers and Blink have all made it to the Number 1 spot on the New York Times best-sellers list.

This August, I’m privileged to be invited by the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) for their 30th SIM Annual Management Lecture (AML), where Malcolm Gladwell will be speaking in two keynote presentations:

1. The Human Capitalization Challenge
2. The Entrepreneurial Profile

I’ve read two of Gladwell’s books, and I’m definitely excited to hear him speak in person.

His books are logical; you will find yourself nodding in agreement while turning the pages, and yet they are also set against conventional wisdom; making you think twice about topics ranging from social psychology to marketing, politics to self-help, and also decision-making strategies.

Having studied Human Resources in my diploma course, I am aware that many companies these days have a problem not just in talent acquisition and talent retention, but also talent capitalization. In the first keynote, Gladwell will share his thoughts and learnings about how to best ‘exploit’ the available human capital in an organization, to ensure highest efficiency at the workplace. This is relevant not only to HR managers, but also all persons within a managerial-level position, business owners, as well as supervisory-level staff.

The second keynote should be of interest to current business owners and potential entrepreneurs. Gladwell will be profiling the ‘entrepreneur type’, so I’m definitely interested to see if I fall into that ‘type’. I’ve never thought of myself as a risk-taker; yet Gladwell opines that entrepreneurs are operationally risk-averse. Regardless, this session is bound to shed some light on how we can encourage innovation and entrepreneurism at our workplace.

If you’re interested in these talks, check out the SIM-AML Facebook page, where you can find out how you can buy a ticket to this full day seminar event, as well as how you can WIN a complimentary event pass worth up to S$1337.50 (inclusive of GST and buffet lunch).

SIM Annual Management Lecture 30th Anniversary
Event details:
26 August 2011 (Friday)
9am to 4pm
Shangri-La Hotel Singapore

This post is sponsored by SIM Annual Management Lecture.

Today I saw a commonly-used phrase that is actually wrong unconventional and not logical:

“All the best to your new appointment!”

I’m not sure whether it is the new job that needs the well wishes, or the person who is starting the new job. I don’t think I need to elaborate on how that sentence is nonsensical, but in case nobody gets it, here are a few variations on better ways to wish someone:

All the best at your new workplace!

All the best for/at your new job!

All the best for/in your new career!

All the best for/in 2010!

There isn’t a single ‘correct’ way to say it, but ‘to’ is definitely the wrong preposition to use.

I think some people are actually a little confused about prepositions to be used (especially for time / place), so without being too technical, here’s a guide:

I will be in Krabi over the weekend. I am flying off to Krabi on Friday.

I am going to Europe in 2010. I am going to Europe in July.

I am attending a wedding on the 18th of May.

I will see you at Tanjong Pagar MRT Station at 6pm.

I am going to be at home tonight.

I hope to visit Chinmay in Sweden.

I live in Singapore. I live in Punggol. I live at 163 Punggol Central.

I have to be back in the office at 2pm / by 2pm.

I have written the details of the event in the email.

If you have any questions or doubts about any phrase, or what prepositions to use, please feel free to drop me a message here!

For fun: What if someone created a food item called ‘Special Sundaes’ at TGIFriday’s every Saturday, and told everyone that the event is running through out May, and that there is an additional discount for people who are working at June Florist. Would the event invitation look like this?

Come join us at Friday’s every Saturday in May, for Special Sundaes! Additional discount for people at June!

Did I confuse you? ]]> http://daphnemaia.sg/2010/01/11/a-lesson-on-prepositions-strange-phrases-seen-online/feed/ 1 http://daphnemaia.sg/2009/01/13/do-you-really-know-how-to-use-your-computer/ http://daphnemaia.sg/2009/01/13/do-you-really-know-how-to-use-your-computer/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:20:36 +0000 daphnemaia http://daphnemaia.sg/?p=64 I was on the phone with a phone operator from the NTUC-SEP (National Trade Union Congress, Surrogate Employer Program branch) and an extremely retarded phone conversation occurred, which makes me wonder, in this age where computer usage is so widely rampant, are people really equipped with the skills and knowledge to not only operate them, but fully leverage what these machines can offer us?

I was trying to look for the list of available courses from NTUC (and don’t even get me started on how confusing their website is, with several different listings available, and how different operators tell me different things). Anyway, apparently I got the wrong course, and this man helpfully re-directed me to the list of courses that he had on hand.

That’s all fine and dandy, and I downloaded an Excel spreadsheet with the full list of courses supported by the NTUC-SEP.

I was looking for the “LCCI Certificate in English for Business Level 2″ course, and so the smart thing to do would be to use the CTRL+F search function and type in ‘LCCI’, right?

However, this seems to be disabled. So I commented to the operator: “Wow, the search function is disabled.”**

And he told me, “Miss, this is not website, cannot do search.” (sic)

I questioned him (patience wearing thin), “Have you heard of CTRL+F?”

He asked me, “Er, what you mean control F har?” (sic)

Brilliant. Perhaps NTUC-SEP needs to send its own staff for some “Microsoft Office Specialist – Microsoft Excel” courses.

————————

** I’m not sure why the search function is disabled (Is it even possible? How? And why would anyone do that?), but later I found out that I can find the listings for ‘LCCI’ by using “Find All” when I type CTRL+F instead of using “Next”. But clicking on the cells don’t work, you need to scroll and manually find the corresponding cell. Bravo. I can’t really decide – does Microsoft win, or does NTUC win, in terms of stupidity?

Well, I suppose it can be argued that it is not the education system, per se, that is lacking, but rather an oversight (or nonchalance) of the Ministry of Education in thinking that people will know what they want, and will be happy with the choices that they made at the age of 16. But bear with me when I equate the education system to the Ministry of Education.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Singapore education system, let me briefly run through the route that most of us go through:

(Click for Larger Image)

Pardon the crudely drawn diagram and the omission of non-mainstream education routes.

At age 16 or 17, after taking the GCE O Levels, a student must choose whether he/she wants to go to the Polytechnic, where he/she will pursue a diploma in a specialised field (for example, Engineering, Business, Accountancy, Mass Communication, Nursing, Biomedical Sciences, Information Technology, etc) or to go on to the Junior College and study for the GCE A Levels examination or International Baccalaureate diploma. The GCE A Levels and IB diploma programme are essentially similar – students choose a number of subjects to study, from a pool of available subjects, such as Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, History, Literature, Geography, Economics, etc. In other words, it is all rather general, and students are not limited to any particular field of study.

What concerns me most is when students choose the Polytechnic route. I am actually all for the idea of going to a Polytechnic, because I personally feel that the other route is a waste of time (having gone through it). But this only holds true if the student knows, at the age of 16 or 17, what he or she is interested in, and would like to build his/her career upon.

Which brings me to my point that we lack career/education counselling or guidance in our education system. Students are going into the polytechnics, choosing courses that they have very little idea about, and end up finding out that they hate the course. While some may quit the course and reapply to another course, most end up perpetuating that mistake, and pursuing careers in those fields that they dislike.

Hence, it is imperative that students are given a clear idea of what they are applying for, what options they have, and the different types of careers that they would have, should they pursue a particular course.

Students often choose courses based on the following factors:

1. Not knowing what they want
2. Friends’ choices
3. Parents’ choices
4. Ministry’s choices (when the MOE was actively promoting life sciences, everyone rushed to that course. Ditto Info-tech courses)
5. Not having a choice due to less-than-stellar O Level results

And students sometimes end up hating their courses because:

1. They didn’t know the course was going to be like this
2. They weren’t informed of the career choices (most who study the life sciences never figured that they were going to end up in the lab every day, watching cells grow or something)
3. They were given only an overview of what the course is about, but not in depth information of the various modules (more material should be given to students to read, instead of just an overview in the faculty brochures)

In which case, it becomes painfully clear that students lack career/education guidance, especially after the very general O Levels, and also the very general A Levels (these paths are named the General Certificate of Education, GCE for a reason), as it is after these examinations that they choose the specializations at the polytechnics or universities, which will affect their careers in the future.

Of course, breaking out of a particular field of study when you enter the work force isn’t entirely impossible, but isn’t the point of education to equip one with the skills and knowledge, so as to be able to efficiently and effectively carry out one’s job in the future? Would it not be a waste of resources to train an engineer, only to have him/her end up in another completely unrelated job?

The remedy to this, perhaps, is to reduce or minimalize errors at the stage of decision-making, and I do feel that it can be done through proper career/education guidance.

ETA: As I write this, it also becomes clear to me that perhaps it would be better for career guidance to be provided by a party that is neutral, that is not directly related or influenced by the Ministry of Education. But I’m fine either way (external party or MOE, preferably the former), as long as it isn’t provided by the school which the student is considering, for obvious reasons that they aren’t exactly going to be impartial.