On 31 July 2016, the ACS OBA hosted the annual ONE ACS Career Forum at ACS (Independent). Organised by the ACS OBA and sponsored by the ACS Foundation, the event is open to students, parents and alumni of the ACS family and the Methodist schools in Singapore.

In 2012, we had 4 sessions and 16 speakers. In 2013, we had 5 simultaneous sessions over 3 time slots to give students greater choice and increase the interface with the speakers in smaller and more focused interest groups. The following year, we introduced a C-suite panel to give students some insight into the thoughts of industry leaders. In 2015, we expanded the format even further to welcome almost 60 alumni speakers spread over 13 different disciplines and invited 7 local tertiary institutions to speak to students about admissions criteria.

This year, to celebrate the 130th anniversary of ACS, we aimed even higher and had an unprecedented 80 alumni speakers across 14 professional disciplines that included traditional courses like Law, Medicine, Accounting, Engineering and Banking and Finance, but also extended to Entrepreneurship, Public Service, Architecture, Media and newly-introduced panels such as Allied Healthcare, Startups and Tech/IoT (Internet of Things). In addition, we introduced Interviewing and Networking Skills panels to familiarize participants with presentation skills strategies.

Lim Tat, the President of the ACS OBA, delivered the opening address and highlighted the objectives of this career forum, namely (1) to provide greater focus into specific career paths in an informal and interactive setting and (2) to enable participants to have a deeper understanding of the pre-requisites needed to enter into those careers. He also expressed gratitude to ACS Foundation (ACSF) which sponsored the event. As Vice-Chairman of the ACSF, he explained that the ACSF is the umbrella foundation for all of the ACS schools, which assists them in enhancing the holistic education needs of our students and teachers, and through them, helps to share with society the blessings and rewards of receiving an ACS education. Together with the OBA, the ACSF consolidates our ACS resources and efforts to ensure that our ONE ACS culture flourishes.

The opening session for the day was the C-Suite panel moderated by Jonathan Yuen, Partner, Rajah and Tann Singapore LLP who engaged Chew Kwee San, Executive Director, Tecity, Ng Kok Siong, Chief Corporate Development Officer, CapitaLand Limited and Rear-Admiral Frederick Chew, Republic of Singapore Navy in a lively and candid discussion on career advice and personal lessons learned from their own time at ACS.

The panels which followed were hosted by alumni moderators who facilitated discussions on questions such as “Tell us about the Highs and Lows of your career”, “What is a typical day in your profession like?” and “What skills do you need to succeed in this job?” The purpose of the questions was to give students and parents a candid and personal insight into the nuances of what each career entails.

Local tertiary institutions - NTU, NUS, SIT, SMU, SUTD, and Yale-NUS were also present to enhance the overall experience of the Forum. Participants were able to engage with representatives from these institutions on topics such as academic modules offered, career options, and the criteria for different careers, in addition to clarifying queries on application procedures and selection requirements.

For the alumni speakers and moderators, this was a special occasion to reconnect with friends, renew ties with the ACS family, reminisce and most importantly, pass on useful and not readily available knowledge to the current generation.

The ACS OBA Management Committee would like to thank the ACS Foundation for its sponsorship of the event, the principals of the ACS schools for their support and the ONE ACS Career Forum 2016 Planning Committee for the herculean task of pulling this together with great success once again. In addition to members of our own OBA management committee, our team included Juliana Tengara from ACS (Independent) and Ganga Jayaram from ACJC. Special thanks to Winston Hodge, Principal of ACS (Independent) for hosting the event at the premises, Juliana and her unwavering spirit, the ACS (Independent) COG team, staff and students for the logistical support, and our alumni speakers for all their time and effort and most  importantly,  for  responding to the call to serve our
ACS community.

The Best Is Yet To Be

Ong Tek Khoan, Jonathan Yuen and Joy-marie Toh.