Life Skills Acquired by Learning Physics and Engineering in Singapore

When you enrol for an engineering or a physics course, the primary objective is attaining a stellar academic performance. However, since the majority of graduates have excellent results, it can be quite challenging to land a job if you do not have life skills to back up the academic papers. For this reason, students are often encouraged to develop these crucial skills while still at school.

Singaporean schools and the country’s education system have a set of transferable skills that physics and engineering students can expect to acquire while learning. Here is a detailed description of how students can obtain these life skills through physics and engineering programs.

Intellectual Skills

Physics and engineering mostly deal with problem-solving, and many practical fields continue to copy the methods used by physicists and engineers to solve changes by proving and calculating the impacts of various models of phenomena. For example, physics is an integral part of recent innovations in mathematics and computing, electronics and computing, and information theory, and so on.

In Singaporean physics and engineering courses, analytical and problem-solving skills are central to all lectures, practicals, project work, and exams. Some of the skills that apply to real-life include, ability to think graphically, ability to design gadgets, statistical analysis skills, and critical data analysis, and so on.

Since physics and engineering are often deemed as ’difficult’ disciplines, conquering them boost the student’s resilience.

Communication Skills

A considerable number of science students often lack in communication skills when they first arrive at university. Schools in Singapore have firm policies that aim to improve them on that front. This is done by setting exam questions in a way that encourages the use of right language and proper exposition of arguments. Lecturers are also encouraged to emphasize these topics when delivering their classes.

Additionally, Singaporean schools aim to develop skills in the oral and written presentation of working, starting from first-year practical write-ups the presentations and projects in the final year of study. By engaging actively in these programs, students improve their communications skills significantly.

Organization and Interpersonal Skills

Another crucial life skill that students acquire when physics and engineering in Singapore is organization. For example, when a learner mages a complicated personal timetable and organize several projects, they become better at planning. It is worth noting that some of the projects are done outside of school, which further improves their competence in planning.

Besides organization, students also acquire interpersonal skills through communicating and working with their colleagues and lecturers. Interaction is continual throughout the learning period, which strengthens their social skills.

 Research Skills

One of the primary objectives of going to school is developing reading and information acquisition skills. Students obtain academic knowledge by reading textbooks and other resources, analyzing literature reviews and completing their coursework with a project.

All physics and engineering schools have vast libraries with fast and reliable internet connectivity. Moreover, all students perform experimental work, which includes the use of advanced techniques such as liquefied gases, the use of microwaves, and electronics, and so on. They also learn the handling and statistical analysis of computer data.

Lastly, students learn to write code using computers and use their programming knowledge to complete their final-year project. All of these are aimed at improving their research skills.

Computing and Numeracy

The key to success in physics and engineering is being adept at computing and numeracy. For these reasons, all students must undertake mathematical courses to improve their numeracy skills. Also, all physics and engineering programs have mathematical elements.

Creativity

Science students tend to think outside the scope of their syllabuses. The learning environment in Singapore schools promotes creativity by encouraging students to think differently. This, in turn, makes students more creative when they eventually leave school and enter the working environment.

Decision Making

As mentioned earlier, physics and engineering classes develop problem-solving skills. This is because science always looks to find solutions to problems. Since most challenges usually have more than one solution, science teaches students to compare the different options and identify the best choice of the lot. By developing decision-making skills at a young age, students can avoid wasting time in future situations.

Flexibility

Flexibility is an invaluable life skill that students can acquire by enrolling for physics and engineering classes in Singapore. Science experiments are particularly useful for allowing students to cope with errors, failure and mistakes. Also, science students are always trying to disprove their theories to improve the validity of their findings.  By learning that failure is one of the possible outcomes in life, students become less rigid. An adult who embraces flexibility in life is more likely to deal better with setbacks, which improves their physical and emotional health.

Evaluation

Physics and engineering classes are also useful in improving evaluation skills. It does this by teaching students how to appraise things correctly by an existing standard. They also learn the scientific method, which aims to determine the truth by creating hypotheses and testing them with experiments.  As a result, the learners become competent at evaluating evidence, problems, and solutions, which increases their value to potential employers once they finish school.

Conclusion

As seen above, physics and engineering degrees in Singapore equip students with a variety of life skills. Besides increasing their chances of landing a job after school, the skills improve the ability to cope with the up and downs of modern life.

More importantly, these transferable skills make an individual valuable such that they can work in an unrelated field comfortably. For instance, communication and presentation skills can make a student qualified for a job as a presenter. Likewise, teamwork and problem-solving skills obtained during the final-year project can be useful in a management role at a company.

Regarding preparation for future life, flexibility and decision-making are particularly useful. A flexible person can adapt to different situations, including adverse ones, which makes them less vulnerable to disappointment and possibly depression. Similarly, decision-making skills enable an individual to choose the best course of action when faced with multiple suitable options.