SINGAPORE — What students like doing in their free time, what their interests are, and whether they are driven by action or are more analytical by nature: These are questions Ms Kua Yen Peng, a banker-turned-school counsellor, asks secondary-school students when they approach her for help.

“Knowing their interests is very important, because if they are interested in what they do, they are likely to be passionate about it and do well,” said Ms Kua, 46, who became an Education and Career Guidance (ECG) counsellor last month, after working as a school counsellor over the last four years. 

She is one of 50 ECG counsellors who have been deployed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to help students make more informed choices. 

Providing an update of the ECG counsellors at the ECG seminar today (Oct 30), Acting Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng said the MOE is on track to provide 100 ECG counsellors to schools, Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs) and polytechnics by 2017. 

“Our counsellors will not only conduct individual and group education and career counselling, they will work with teacher coordinators in the schools to design and conduct relevant ECG programmes,” he added. 

Career centres, which will act as  resource venues for post-secondary students and parents to address education and career needs, will also be opened in all eight ITE colleges and polytechnics by January next year.  Students can also visit a new ECG Centre @ MOE (Grange Road) from next month. 

Ms Kua, who graduated from Murdoch University with a Bachelor of Arts (Major in Psychology) in 1993, is currently deployed at Chong Boon Secondary School, Outram Secondary School, Queenstown Secondary School and Yuying Secondary School. “I like working with youths … and I really enjoy listening to them,” said Ms Kua, who left her job as a banker in 2010. 

At the secondary school level, students are still wondering which course of study to pursue, while some are trying to decide whether to go to a junior college or polytechnic. “What I try to do is to get them to start thinking, and explore their strengths and interests and what is out there, like the different occupations,” she said. 

The mother of one said she would have welcomed such counselling efforts as a student, in guiding her on what careers and study options were available. Only recently, for example, did she learn of jobs such as merchandising in the fashion industry. 

“I was one of those who never really planned what I wanted (to do),” she added. “(It would have) absolutely (helped) me.”