Giving career options a try with On My Way’s Taster Programme

Choosing a course to pursue can be hard, especially when we aren’t too sure what the course and the jobs it leads to are all about. 

Thankfully, On My Way’s (OMW) Taster Programmes can let you clarify your doubts and even try your hand at the industry you are passionate about.

Organised by the National Youth Council (NYC) in collaboration with Bold At Work and The Astronauts Collective (TAC), the programmes let students experience more about the industries they are interested in, such as communications, healthcare and even digital design. 

On Dec 10, me and seven other students had a taste of working life in the Computer Science industry at ST Engineering.

This is what I’ve learnt from the Taster Programme. 

The programme started with an overview of the work that ST Engineering has been doing over the years.

ST Engineering specialises in technology and innovation, creating solutions for real-world problems, improving the quality of life. It could be as simple as a sensor to detect full bins or something even more complex like controlling traffic lights when an emergency vehicle is passing through.

We got to see how ST Engineering works closely with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to create a game-like battlefield for recruits to practise, and with medics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) or hospitals so they can be given medical information about a patient even before reaching a scene. 

Overall, the tour was very insightful for me as I knew very little about the computer science field and the kind of work it entails beforehand. 

The next part of the programme involved trying out some jobs related to the industry. 

The eight of us tried out roles such as data analyst or software engineer. I was ‘offered a job’ as a data scientist. Though I found it challenging as I had no computing background, the guides were very patient and helped me step-by-step.

From them I learnt more about the capabilities of AI and the role of data scientists in the industry. For example, there are limitations as to what AI can do, and that is where the data scientists come in to make improvements. 

Trying out the actual job was an eye opening experience for me as I now had a bit more in-depth knowledge about the jobs related to the computer science course.

Towards the end of the Taster Programme, we were given a chance to ask experts any questions about the industry or even their education journey. 

The questions ranged from clarifications about certain job roles to even what specific modules are required in university. 

I was not the only one who found the answers insightful. One of the students, Sonia, 18, who just finished her A-level examinations, said: “I’m not very sure what I want to do in university and as a career, so I thought that this would help to clarify my career choices.”

Another student, 16-year-old Zelene who’s waiting for her O-level examination results said: “I have always been interested in the computing industry and I decided computing science would be an interesting career for me to try out.

“So I thought this programme would give me more insight and help me understand a bit more about what I’m trying to become in the future. This programme definitely answered a lot of my previous queries.”

From understanding how the job roles collaborate to seeing real-life examples of the industry’s works, I definitely have a much clearer understanding of the computer science field. 

If you’re having a hard time deciding what to study, you should give OMW’s Taster Programmes a shot.