For many families in Singapore, deciding on pathways after secondary school can feel loaded with pressure.

Locally, junior colleges or JCs are usually linked to the strongest academic results. Polytechnics are increasingly competitive, but they tend to attract students who already have some idea of what they want to pursue in their future careers. The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) is often the path that students take when their grades do not qualify them for JCs or polys.

No matter what results a teen gets, families will still have to decide what comes next. What if a teen is not sure what suits them? Could a route that was not the original plan still lead somewhere meaningful?

These were some of the questions raised in our recent KiasuParents Huddle webinar, where panellists shared their experiences of different post-secondary pathways.

If you didn’t manage to catch our KiasuParents Huddle webinar, below are some highlights. Do note that the conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

How did you decide on your post-secondary pathway?

Faith Goh: I think it wasn’t just the question of which school should I go to, but also what kind of student do I realistically see myself being for the next phase of my life? 

My considerations were my learning style and the academic pressures.

As many may know, JC is very theory-heavy. It can be fast-paced and also exam-oriented. I chose JC because I prefer a more structured curriculum rather than having very open, project-based assessments. I knew that I was stronger in academic subjects, and I was okay with the rigour.

Ashley Matthew: When I first heard about the Polytechnic Foundation Programme, it’s like, whoa, there’s a “free pass” to go to poly.

Of course, in order to reach that, you have to work hard, and do your best for N-levels. Thankfully, I managed to get into the programme.

Sitting in a traditional classroom didn’t feel very right for me. I found the hands-on approach of poly life to be absolutely what I wanted, and therefore, it was quite easy for me, not only to pass the course, but also to get used to poly life.

Joyce Ng: I think my only consideration was the journey that it would take to reach where I am right now. 

Over the years, I had to learn that it wasn’t how fast I got there, but the quality of my journey. 

Do take your own time to consider what is best for you, the "why" behind your decision, and how much effort you need to put in.

What is JC life like?

Faith Goh: For JC, typically in Year 1, you do have a rather steep learning curve. You add on a lot more extension topics to what you’ve learned in secondary school.

The rigour that I can share more about would be the Year 2 rigour, which is really the entire year of preparing yourself to sit for your A-levels. I’m currently in the thick of it right now, where we have online learning for certain subjects. For example, last week, I spent a day learning one entire chapter, and the teachers do expect you to understand it within about two hours.

I think that JCs also put a lot of importance on extracurriculars, for example, co-curricular activities (CCAs), as well as service learning. So that’s added on to the rigour of having to absorb whatever content is required of you.

Is poly less rigorous than JC?

Joyce Ng: I wouldn’t say that it’s less rigorous. In some ways, it’s similar to where I am right now at NUS. The classes are very similar, the lectures are very similar, and pace-wise, it’s like in one course, they can teach you once, and they don’t really go back to it. You need to have your own discipline to study the material and understand it, so that you’ll be able to do well in the test.

So I think it’s rigorous, because you need to have self-discipline and a lot of things are not fed to you. You need to hit the books, you need to hit the library, you need to go to Google, you need to research, and that’s all done by you.

Yen Yen Tan: When you’re in poly, every single assignment counts. Your Grade Point Average (GPA) builds up from day one. So if you think, "okay, I can coast through the first half of the year," and your GPA drops, it adds up, it’s accumulative.

For poly, it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon for three years, and you need to consistently keep at it.

Sometimes poly is a bit difficult, because certain courses don’t have exams. Sometimes it’s coursework throughout, or it’s project work. And if you don’t hand those in, it affects your GPA. 

So it’s not quite a matter of poly or JC being more rigorous than the other. It’s a different way of teaching.

How important is self-discipline in poly?

Yen Yen Tan: When you go through the poly route, you’ll have to be even more disciplined than a JC student.

In poly, the student has the ability to choose what days they are in school. And sometimes there are lessons where there could be a three-hour gap in between. Because the earlier class could be full, so your child needs to take a later class.

During that free time, if you are disciplined, you will be doing your projects, you’ll be learning. 

But if you’re not disciplined when you have so much free time, poly may not be the best thing for you. Why? Because you really need to take charge of your project, you need to be on top of your assessments, and a lot of poly teachers will tell you, "We are here to facilitate. We are not here to lead you by your hand."

Having completed these, what did you gain from your poly and ITE experiences?

Joyce Ng: Going through ITE and poly, it gave me the chance to really explore what I like.

I took a year off before uni to figure things out. Because after finishing poly, I realised that nursing was not what I wanted to do.

I guess poly, in a sense, gave me the opportunity to explore a part of psychology. I started to get into it during poly, and that’s where I am now in NUS Psych.

Ashley Matthew: It was during my poly life that things clicked even more. For context, I’ve been shooting photographs since secondary school, but it was in poly where I was given the tools and also the understanding of what working in the industry was going to be like.

I did my poly internship at a wedding video production house, and through this, I learned a lot of things, like professionalism. These are things that are not exactly related to your course, but they are important life skills for everyone to have, like how to talk to clients, and being on time for shoots. So you’re learning the skills needed to enter the industry.

What is the Polytechnic Foundation Programme like?

Ashley Matthew: The PFP is like a bridging year, in order to advance you into the actual poly course that you signed up for.

I would say it’s a mix of poly life, as well as secondary school, because strangely enough, I was still learning a bit of English during my PFP, and also a bit of math. There were also some other things like character building, and if I remember correctly, there was PE (physical education).

What is life in the ITE like?

Joyce Ng: When I was there, there was this stereotype that the ITE wasn’t a very good school. 

Back then, when my O-level results weren’t fantastic, I had to go there, so it was more of having no choice. But after I entered, I realised that the environment is what you make of it, and it’s who you hang out with.

If you do “end up” in ITE, I don’t think it’s what people say, like, “it’s the end.” 

You see my journey, even though it took a longer time, but I had so many good experiences. It’s not about being the first to finish the education race. It’s the quality of the race, and what you learn that is important.

What if a teen doesn’t know what they’re interested in?

Yen Yen Tan: Usually, there is an inkling. It could be as simple as them saying, "Mom, I just like this thing." That could also be something, a talking point to start a conversation with your child. 

Ashley Matthew: If your kid doesn’t have a dream yet, doesn’t have a goal, I think the poly is a good route, because being hands-on gets you into the mode of, "Hey, this is something that I would want to do in the future."

For example, if you’re in the film course, you might start to think, "I really love storytelling." 

So these are platforms for your kid to know if this is what they want to do in life, and from there, they can pursue it further.

How early should families start exploring options?

Faith Goh: If I could give an indicator of when I started thinking about post-secondary pathways, or started talking about it with my peers, that would be towards the end of Sec 2, when we were asked to start picking our subject combinations. That was when many of us started thinking, “What sort of subjects do I actually perform better in? What do I enjoy more?”

Yen Yen Tan: You can start exploring options once your child is in secondary school. I often tell parents to go to a polytechnic open house with their teens. Go see what are the courses available, go and roam.

Why? Because in Sec 3 and Sec 4, that’s when you’ll start thinking: What are my child’s interests? What are my child’s strengths? If you start discussing this with your child in Sec 3, you’ll have two years to think about what they can be looking at.

How can parents support a child during the post-secondary years, including those with special educational needs?

Yen Yen Tan: A lot of parents think that, “Oh, my kids are out of secondary school. They are old enough at 17 or 18. They can handle it themselves, right?”

I would say that it’s a yes and a no. I often tell parents that you need to teach your kids to be independent, but if your child, like mine, has got special educational needs, when they transition from secondary school to poly, it is extremely important to inform the school about your child’s needs.

For example, polys now have a good support system for kids with educational needs. So please make sure you inform the school, and the school will be able to help you.

Because it’s a transitional period, there are different things to face. There’s a lot of group work. You need to be able to manage group dynamics. You need to have good interpersonal skills. And sometimes this is difficult for kids with educational needs, so it’s important to support your child through that.

What should parents avoid doing?

Ashley Matthew: For parents, don’t treat poly or ITE as a backup plan.

Really, poly or ITE doesn’t mean that it’s for those who don’t know how to study, or don’t want to study. Both streams are okay.

For your kid, listen to them to see what better fits into their interests, their strengths, what they want to pursue in life. I think it’s very important to listen to what your child actually wants.