The 3rd ONE ACS Career Forum 2014
gets BIGGER and BETTER!

On Saturday, August 2nd 2014, the ACS OBA hosted the 3rd ONE ACS Career Forum at ACS (Independent) for over 1,200 students, parents, alumni and staff of Anglo-Chinese Junior College, ACS (Barker Road), ACS (Independent), ACS (International) and the Methodist Girls’ School. It was truly inspirational to see how this event has grown; from 700 participants in 2012, over 1,000 in 2013, and close to 1,200 this year.

Just like the forums held before, the objective remained the same; to introduce different perspectives of a variety of professions in a candid and informal format so that the students were exposed to the diverse ways in which people make choices.

When we first organized the inaugural forum in 2012, we had 4 sessions and 16 speakers. Last year, we had 5 simultaneous sessions over 3 time slots to give students greater choice and increase the interaction with the speakers in smaller interest groups. This year, our agenda opened with “A View for the Top”, a distinguished C-suite panel comprising Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, Head, Temasek Enterprise Development Group, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, Oon Jin Teik, Chief Operating Officer, Sports Hub and Cheo Chai Hong, Managing Director, United Overseas Bank and President of the ACS OBA, moderated by Jonathan Yuen, Partner, Rajah and Tann Singapore LLP.

In addition, we hosted almost 60 Old Boys and Girls of ACS spread over 13 different disciplines ranging from the traditional courses of Law, Medicine, Engineering and Banking and Finance, to Entrepreneurship, Public Service, Architecture and Research. This format was designed specially to give students greater choice and increase the interface with the speakers in smaller and more focused interest groups.

Each panel was hosted by an alumni moderator covering topics such as “Tell us about the Highs and Lows of your career”, “What is a typical day in your profession like?” and “What skills do you need to succeed in this job?” This was meant to complement the existing career talks that the schools host individually and to give a more ‘up close and personal’ insight into what each career entails. The focused nature of each of the industry panels allowed significant interaction between students, parents and the alumni panellists – who candidly shared their personal insights, experiences and advice. In a sure sign of their enthusiasm and interest, many students continued to engage with the panelists even after the session had ended!

The ACS OBA would like to thank the ONE ACS Career Forum 2014 Planning Committee for the herculean task of pulling this together with great success once again. In addition to members of our own OBA management committee, we had representatives from ACS (I), (BR), (International) and ACJC, making this a truly ONE ACS event. All of them from different campuses, but wearing 1 badge, signing off with 1 motto, and singing 1 anthem.

Special thanks to Winston Hodge, Principal of ACS (Independent) for hosting the event at the premises, Juliana Tengara and the ACS (Independent) staff and students for the logistical support, and our alumni speakers for all their time and effort and most importantly, for rising to our call to serve our ACS community.

With the exception of those who were traveling, not one ACSian who we approached to speak turned the OBA down. Such is the ACS spirit, and this is what makes ACS unique. It’s the lifelong ties we have to the school, and the willingness and desire to respond to the ACSian call. And of course, the passion to carry on our ACS tradition of humble service and loyalty.

The Best Is Yet To Be

Ong Tek Khoan, Jonathan Yuen, Joy-marie Toh