The most important aim of education is to prepare one for a career. Do you agree?

The Graduate Employment Survey (GES) is conducted annually to survey the

employment outcomes of the graduates, about six months after completing their final
examinations. The 2012 survey is the first to be conducted jointly by NUS, NTU and
SMU. The Ministry of Education publishes the results of the key employment
indicators of the survey to provide prospective students with timely and comparable
data to assist them in making informed course decisions. 14,067 graduates from the
three publicly-funded universities were surveyed and the overall response rate
obtained was 73%. Since majority of the students were able to find jobs within 6
months of their graduation, this means that they have the skills required for the job,
which means that schools have equipped their students well for the job. I personally
believe that the most important aim of education is to prepare one for a career. For
Singapore, a large part of education is devoted to ensuring that students have a
general foundation of content knowledge and education also provides one with
specific and social skills.
Firstly, a large part of education is devoted to ensuring that students have a general
foundation of content knowledge. An average student in Singapore spends 6 years
in Primary School, where she has to grasp a foundation of English, Mother Tongue,
Science and Mathematics. She then spends four or five years in Secondary School
building upon this foundation of knowledge by branching out into more specific areas
of study such as Science and Mathematics. Why? The answer can be found by
looking at the industries needed for the country to function. In Singapore, we have
industries such as Medicine, Accounting, Banking and Finance, Sales, Engineering
so on so forth. As many industries require workers skilled in Mathematics and or
Science, it is necessary to focus on these subjects in the education system in order
to produce workers who are capable of filling in these industries.
Furthermore, education provides one with specific skills and social skills. When a
student enters the tertiary stage of education. She is then made to choose an area of
discipline to major in. She can pursue disciplines such as Dentistry, Medicine,
Electrical Engineering, Medical Engineering, Accounting, Psychology, Economics
and many others. The disciplines offered in polytechnics and universities are very
strongly connected with specific jobs available in the market. For example, if a
student wishes to become a doctor, a degree in Medicine is a pre-requisite. A
student cannot study Accounting and use that degree to become a doctor. Social
skills are the skills we use to communicate and interact with each other, both verbally
and non-verbally, through gestures, body language and our personal appearance.
The types of social skills imparted to students are co-operation, communication,
empathy, adaptability, conflict-resolution skills, building and maintaining friendships,
listening, and many more. In this labour-tight economy, employers can be choosy
about who they want to work with. Conversely, outstanding social skills can help an
average performer climb the corporate ladder with great speed.
In conclusion, the most important aim of education is to prepare one for her career
as it provides one with the content knowledge and provides one specific skills and
social skills.