Fake Talents in Singapore?

The Singapore gahmen has successfully moulded the elite system in society, giving preference to those from top-notch schools and highly esteemed universities in a bid to enforce meritocracy. Have these systems been successfully enforced at the workplace? Whose responsibility will this be to ensure that competent hires produced by our Singaporeans, will be met by credible employees from abroad?


In Australia, preference is given to Australian-degree holders (regardless of citizens to a certain extent) who complete more than 2 years of degree in Australia, and must pass the English IELTS test with an academic standing of 6.5/9.0 in written, spoken and listening scores and must have a valid working visa that costs hundred times that of Singapore's.


In Singapore however, entry requirements for 'professionals' are so low it's easy for anyone to enter. Salary and years of experience form the basis as core requirements for approval; recognised qualifications now extend to emerging countries that do not meet Times Higher Education Supplement's Top 200 University Ranking 2010 nor the QS World Ranking 2010. Further, language requirements are surprisingly, not a must for a Nation that preaches English as the first language.


Here is a snapshot of the Employment Pass Categories on the MOM website:

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Let's take a look at an instance in the IT industry that many know, are heavily colonised by Indian migrants from India. They are 'perceived' to possess exceptional IT skills and have high science and mathematics score. That's the perception unfortunately. Further screenshots from linkedin.com reveal that these immigrants from South Asia, do not come from Top Universities in India, or can be regarded as talent, and that Mininstry of Manpower, has accepted third-world degrees as recognised degrees to their list. One would question how will this add or increase Singapore's competencies and improve productivity. Others question why should they be paid handsomely from graduating in these unknown Universities in the World.


Our investigative checks show how Barclays and many other Foreign Banks in Singapore employ Indians and Filipinos, and possibly Chinese, who do not have top IT degrees in their home country, nor do they graduate from any of the Singapore Universities - as far as these checks were performed.  In the words of MM Lee, he is aware that the Indians from India do not integrate with the local Indians and are seen as superior (refer to Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going, 2011) and that some Chinese PRC do not feel accepted in Singapore.


Based on our recent investigations, the highest connections were largely Indian immigrants in Singapore in Linkedin.com As such, we highlighted these examples we found online for convenience sampling in the interest of time:




Investment Bank hires IT developers from unknown, unranked universities in the World.

Another One:

Oh, Another One:

There's more but hopefully you get the point..

2. So how much do they earn in Singapore?
According to the Straits Times article not too long ago, "Indian immigrants in their 30s, earn on average S$5,000 to S$7,000..."

3. So how do their Universities compare with the World?"
(a) THES Top 200 World University Ranking 2010:


Indian Universities are not ranked in Top 200 THES listings. They fall between 300-400. When viewed by speciality in Engineering and IT, Indian and Philippines Universities did not make it into the list: NUS scored higher nonetheless.

See More: Top 50 Engineering & IT


(b) QS World Ranking 2010:

See More: Rankings of Indian Universities in QS


4. So how did they come here and on what merit or basis?
It is probable that ignorant MNCs hire foreign recruiters, who do not need relevant HR degrees, in order to fill their vacancies quickly. By tapping on strong and deep relationships such as immigrants, they are able to satisfy their hiring manager's demands in requesting for candidates to fill vacancies rather than assessing competent ones. It is also probable that the hiring managers are directors, managers, or supervisors from the same home country as per the linkedin.com connections show. Try and search for yourself. You can do these causal findings yourself!


i. Recruiter from India in Barclays Singapore.

ii. Another recruiter from India in Barclays Bank Singapore.

Question: Why are these recruiters in HR non-Singaporeans?


5. Concerns
In this investigation, some questions were raised: What then will happen if you have 'over qualified' candidates who are smarter than Singaporeans? Will this disadvantage us citizens? Why are there no protectionistic sectors of the industry? How can you control demand if you don't know your local talent supply? 


If these immigrants are hiring their own, (quite obvious they are since they arrived in numbers within a short period of time) what can be done to empower HR professionals when they have to submit to unruly requests by bigotry bosses/line managers? 


The answer: Employment Law. But there's no one looking into this piece at the moment. HK on the other hand, has a strong employment law, that empowers HR Managers to throw out requests such as these. Check the Hong Kong's Employment Ordinance recently enacted for details!


In comparison, Hong Kong was able to enforce meritocracy, create jobs for Hong Kongers in the face of rising emigration from the billions of Chinese in Mainland. MNCs are concerned at supply of talent, but not necessarily about where they are from. To say MNCs need 'foreigners', is just gibberish and an untrained school of thought -- MNCs are everywhere.