“25 organisations, 170 students and alumni convened at this event to learn about the exciting internships and career opportunities for public policy graduates, and what’s trending in the public policy and international affairs landscape.”
The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) hosted its inaugural Virtual Career Fair from 30 March to 2 April 2020, which saw the participation of 25 organisations and 170 attendees. The virtual career fair organised by LKY School’s Career Services, in collaboration with Alumni Relations and student groups Social Investment Group (SIG) and FinFolks, offered a digital platform to students, alumni and employers to congregate and discuss pertinent policy issues across the globe. Opening doors to new opportunities, the fair comprised recruitment webinars for employer organisations to be connected with Asia’s policy talents within the LKYSPP community. The event covered four dedicated tracks namely: International Trade & Development, Banking & Finance (including development banks), Consulting, Government Affairs & Research and Technology & Government Administration.
The event kicked off with recruitment webinars from Institute of Water Policy (IWP), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Ltd (KAS), UNDP and India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) who shared their ongoing projects and future mapping. This was complimented by a panel discussion on “Sustainable development and liveable cities: through the lens of International Organisations (IO)”, which featured panellists from UNDP, IFC and Centre for Liveable Cities, deliberating on what it would mean to be sustainable in the future, moderated by Professor James Crabtree, Associate Professor in Practice at the LKY School.
- Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), Ministry of National Development
- India Child Protection Fund (ICPF)
Institute of Water Policy
- International Finance Corporation (IFC)
- Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS)
- UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development
Day two of the fair carried on to feature The World Bank, Save The Children and TikTok who shared with attendees their organisation profiles and priorities as well as the recruitment opportunities available.
The panel discussion on “The trilogy of FinTech, BigTech and GovTech” brought together panellists from ZestMoney India, MasterCard and SDGx, and was moderated by an MPP alumnus, Xiao Wang, Economist at the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank (AIIB). A model for financial institutions, Tech Lash, future oriented financing, transparent financing, system financing and democratised financing were some of the discussion topics.
- Mastercard
- Save the Children
- SDGx
- The World Bank Group, Singapore
- TikTok
- ZestMoney India
Continuing the momentum of thought-provoking discussions, day three saw recruitment webinars with the European Centre in Singapore, RED-HILL, Boston Consulting Group and the APRIL Group who discussed current opportunities at their organisations and a ground-check on what students and alumni can expect when they join. The panel discussion on “The COVID-19 – Challenges & Reflections: Agency & Client Perspectives” saw panellists from Landmark Public Affairs, Control Risks and Twitter sharing their projections on the ongoing pandemic. Moderated by Professor James Crabtree, the discussion shed light on ways forward after the pandemic for organisations to change gears without incurring huge losses in capital and human resource.
- APRIL Group
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
- Control Risks
- European Union Centre
- Landmark Public Affairs
- Redhill
- Twitter
The last day of the fair was power packed with recruitment webinars by Blackpeak, World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore and Google who opened the floor for students to discuss the future of work at these organisations and the process of recruitment. Day four added a special feature, “Dialogue with Alumni Working in Amazon China”, a session dedicated to our LKYSPP alumnus Wellington (Liu Tao), to offer a window into the working culture at Amazon and by extension the future of public policy in China. The last day concluded on a high note with a panel discussion on “Being Cyber Ready in the Digital Government Transformation Era”, which saw panellists from LinkedIn and Interpol. Moderated by MPP alumnus Adrian Wan from The Internet Society, some key topics discussed included the democratisation of technology (internet as a free commodity), reliable routing, career pathing, AI automation and engineering tech and entrepreneurship.
- Amazon
- Blackpeak
- Google
- Interpol
- Internet Society
- LinkedIn
- World Wide Fund for Nature,Singapore
Hear what some participants who attended the Virtual LKYSPP Career Fair have to say:
On some of the panel discussions
“It was a good panel of speakers on the topic of smart cities.”
“This was a really informative session from top-tier organisations.”
(On Panel Discussion 1 “Sustainable development and liveable cities”)
“It's really insightful! Especially the capabilities and skills part. And also how can our public policy students take part in the development of FinTech,BigTech and GovTech development.”
“Very interesting and relevant discussion from the panel. It was engaging despite being on Zoom.”
(On Panel Discussion 2 “The trilogy of FinTech, BigTech and GovTech”)
On some of the recruitment webinars
“The panelists shared with us a very comprehensive picture of the WB (The World Bank Group, IBRD-IDA) and the tips and insights related to the potential career paths offered by both the WB and the IFC (International Finance Corporation) were definitely useful.”
“The session was interesting. The speakers (i.e. World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF) were able to provide information about their work and activities, as well as job opportunities available at their organisation. This session was an eye opener for me not only on WWF (roles and responsibilities on the financial elements, but also its contribution towards preserving the nature.”
“This is really insightful and helpful! They (APRIL Group) mainly talked about the recruitment program and it was so detailed"