This year’s school education fair, in collaboration with MMS as the appointed organiser, was conducted online. 48 reputable institutions from Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom as well as prestigious local universities and colleges came together with one common objective. It was to provide better understanding of the programs offered, and for our students to explore their study options before making an informed decision on what course to pursue to realise their fulfilling career in the future.
The virtual education fair was carried out 3 days in a row; 11th,12th and 13th August, with 3 classes each attending on the 1st and 2nd day and 4 classes on the 3rd day. This deliberate arrangement was aimed to provide our students with better and more personal consultation experience.
Here are some students sharing their experience of attending the virtual fair:
This year the Upper Secondary students attended the first ever school’s Virtual Education Fair. A month prior to the actual day of our virtual consultation, we had to fill up a registration form containing list of institutions to choose from to have a more personal consultation.
On the consultation day, all of us gathered in the virtual hall in the Zoom meeting room and were sent to the breakout rooms according to our preferred and selected institutions. Each session with a university lasted for about 30 minutes and we were given the opportunity to interact with the representatives to understand various aspects of each university including scholarship opportunities, amenities provided and the learning methods that the university implements.
Personally, I really enjoyed the session conducted by the International Medical University (IMU) as the session was more relaxed and the representative was engaging on a personal level with each of the participants in the virtual session.
We also discussed issues that graduates face in the 21st century, where quality education is of great importance to remain competitive in various industries for employment and career development. It was also a great sharing session where we get to communicate with our friends and classmates about ambitions and goals in the future.
As a student, I am grateful for the school’s initiative to organise a great session to show and inform students of the importance of formal education for our future career.
– Kieran Bhasker (F5 Theta)
I find the virtual education fair to be exciting because I managed to know more about my preferred course – culinary art. I talked to representatives from B.H.M.S & Sunway Le Cordon Bleu, two prestigious hospitality and culinary schools, and they have shared many interesting things. Thanks to them, now I know that there are specific names for different type of knives and unique breads. I hope in the future I can learn more about culinary arts.
– Eleana Christopher (F4 Alpha)
I attended the Virtual Education Fair on 12th August. First of all, I would like to say that I am grateful that I got to attend this Virtual Education Fair so that I could have a better understanding of different universities and their brief background. There are many universities that we get to choose from. For me, I chose to learn more about Monash University, Taylor’s University, Sunway University as well as Curtin University. The university representatives did an excellent job. They explained the details very clearly about the courses we are interested in. Last but not least, I hope our school can have more programs like this in the future.
– Charleen Wee (F4 Delta)
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, most activities and events have been carried out in one safe domain – the virtual platform. I am grateful that our school has initiated the effort to organise a school level virtual education fair amidst this prolonged MCO and study from home. Instead of face-to-face interaction with the university representatives, we gathered in Zoom and have more personal sessions with the institutions of our choice in the breakout rooms. Just like during physical education fairs, I can still talk to representatives from different universities, gather information and ask all the queries I want, and they are able to provide me with information and clear explanation. I think the advantages of virtual education fair are I can easily download materials, save on transportation time and most importantly, I won’t expose myself to health concerns caused by COVID-19.
– Zoe Tay (F5 Theta)
The education fair came around again this year, and unlike pre-pandemic years, it was held online. Unfortunately, I was allowed to attend only 4 different universities’ talks. Even so, I was able to find out more about Monash’s diverse courses, Heriot-Watt’s scholarships, Taylor’s impressive facilities, and Sunway’s bustling campus life. Not only did I get the necessary information about my tertiary education pathway, I also got my eyes opened to other career alternatives I’d never considered before like culinary arts and finance. The speakers were nice and friendly and gave detailed information. It was great to learn more about my options after secondary school.
– Max Ng (F5 Phi)
My experience with the virtual education fair was alright. There were times when there were very few people/students in the breakout room and it got too quiet at times, and it seemed as though nothing was happening; so it was a bit weird and awkward. However, some of the colloquium was well done. I had a talk with a representative of a university about a common interest and I have learned a few things from him. I do appreciate the organiser, MMS, for putting in effort into this virtual education fair. It was well organised and I’m pretty sure it has been quite informative for most students, including myself.
– Isaac Maehan (F4 Delta)
St Joseph’s Private School has had the privilege of hosting a virtual education fair for both its Form 4 and Form 5 students. I was one of the students lucky enough to participate in it.
As I am a person who doesn’t have a solid idea of the course that I’d like to take, I signed up for multiple sessions offered by several universities that specialize in different fields such as medical sciences and the culinary arts. I have learned about the different specialized courses in those fields and what they can do such as the fact that pharmacy is different from pharmaceutical sciences, and how professional chefs have different names for certain cuts and knives. Overall it was a very eye-opening and fruitful day for me as I have managed to explore my interests further.
– Ivan Then (F5 Delta)
On the 11th to 13th of August, our school held its first virtual education fair for students of Form 4 and Form 5. It was carried out through Zoom and we had over 40 different universities to choose from. The main purpose of this event was to give the students the opportunity to explore their study options and to give a clearer insight on which career path they would like to pursue in the future. This event has undoubtedly benefited me in many ways, and as a result, it has opened my mind to numerous study options. We faced technical problems, but it was a success nonetheless. I look forward to participating in more educational events in the time to come.
– Angelia Faye (F4 Sigma)
On Wednesday, 11 August 2021, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to attend this educational fair despite this pandemic. Although it was done online, surprisingly, I had a lot of input about further studies. I was briefed by a few agents from MMS. They were very friendly and patient in answering all of my questions as well. During the fair, I realised that getting scholarships from universities is not as easy as I thought before. We have to get at least 2 A’s in our SPM in order to get some discount from them. However, if we get straight A’s in our SPM, we might even enjoy a full scholarship from the university and in this way, we would be able to reduce some financial burden of our parents as well. This educational fair really motivated me to study harder.
– Neo Zheng Pin (F4 Theta)
