MAs are encouraged to look for Gap Year attachments with private sector organisations that allow them to gain a broad strategic perspective of issues, e.g. Multi-National Corporations or other large firms. Positions in international organisations such as the World Health Organisation or World Bank will also be considered.
Some of the participating companies in the Gap Year programme include Asia Pacific Breweries Limited, sanofi-aventis Singapore, Sembcorp Logistics, and Standard Chartered Bank. Here's what these companies have to say about the Gap Year experience...
"For such Gap Year programmes to be meaningful, the candidate must know what is expected of him or her, and the candidate's own expectation must also be met. In our case, this was less of an issue as the MA had approached the company on his own with very clear expectations."
- Mr Lourdes Jerome,
Manager/Information Solutions Department,
sanofi-aventis Singapore.
"The Host Company has full autonomy in deploying and assigning the tasks to the MA. I think this is a plus practice to be continued as it gives the Host Company a free hand to fully engage the MA."
- Mr Loi Kum Sai,
General Manager,
ST-Anda, SembCorp Logistics.
"In our continuous effort to build leadership capability, APB has placed a lot of emphasis on leadership and staff development. - identifying key individuals for intensive assessment, training & development opportunities and creating opportunities to broaden their experience/exposure across our operating companies in the Asia-Pacific region. We are pleased to participate in the Gap year, and had extended with some modification, our development programme designed for our young high potentials to Benjamin. He was attached to our Singapore operations and thereafter placed on an overseas stint in Shanghai, China. During his attachment with us, Benjamin was assigned projects which include creating a template to assess the business viability of commercial outlets for use by our Sales managers in Shanghai. The Gap year is definitely a good programme and proved to be mutually beneficial to both the MA and APB."
- Mr James C H Tan,
General Manager (Group Human Resource),
Asia Pacific Breweries Limited
"The Gap Year Programme is a great way to build bridges between the private and public sectors. We believe it has been an enriching experience both for the intern and our employees who have worked with him. The PSC should continue with the Gap Year Programme and if possible extend it to more private sector companies."
- Standard Chartered Bank.
If your company is interested in participating in the Gap Year programme, please feel free to contact us.
