Oldest grad from Temasek Poly says he enjoys studying

SINGAPORE — Even before the certificate for his diploma was printed, 70-year-old Johnnie Chia, who is the oldest graduate from Temasek Polytechnic by far, was already thinking about the next course to attend.

The diploma he collected yesterday is from his part-time course in digital advertising technology and analytics at the polytechnic, and he probably has more educational certifications than most people have in their lifetimes.

After his first bachelor’s degree in economics at the former University of Singapore in 1971, he went on to obtain two bachelor’s degrees in accounting, and a master’s degree in economics, working and studying part-time. He also has other diplomas in computer studies and marketing.

Mr Chia, who is an adjunct marketing lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic, was part of 669 working adults graduating yesterday and today from 18 part-time courses offered by the polytechnic.

They earned diplomas for professional development in business, applied science and information technology, among others.

Semi-retired from a marketing career in the petroleum industry and marketing consultancy in 2000, Mr Chia admits that he enjoys studying. His interest of study, he said, has evolved from economics and marketing to accounting, and now to computer science.

For his latest diploma, the septuagenarian spent three hours in class and eight hours on self-study each week over two semesters.

Most of his classmates were in their 40s, working in the business and healthcare fields. They took the course to learn how to find out if their websites were doing well, he said.

For Mr Chia, he wanted to keep up with his younger marketing students at Nanyang Polytechnic.

“Traditional marketing is very focused on print advertising … but my students say their interest is in mobile devices,” he said.

“My challenge is to make sure that when I speak to them, I am not talking about something from 30 years ago,” he added, laughing.

With what he has learnt, he can now explain to students how to measure the effectiveness of mobile advertisements, he said.

He dismissed worries that studying at 70 could be stressful. He said: “I’ve been doing this for years. I believe that if you keep exercising your brain, it should be effortless, like exercising your body.”

Older individuals interested in continuing their education should know what they need and have an interest as motivation, he said. “You shouldn’t be afraid of your age,” he added.

For older adults, taking shorter courses focused on specific skills can be more manageable than a degree, he advised.

Mr Chia is now looking to take another diploma course at Singapore Polytechnic next year to improve his multimedia and website development skills. In the interim, he will be doing some reading to prepare for it.

“When I first started doing these work-study courses … I was about the only guy with white hair. But over the years, I see the pattern is changing and there are more white-haired (students) ... I think that is good for the country.”