School Of Business & Accountancy Media Backgrounder
The School
The School of Business & Accountancy (BA) is widely recognised as the premier provider of business and accountancy education at the polytechnic level in Singapore. Our courses empower students to take on the many challenges of the dynamic business, banking, information technology, accountancy, and tourism sectors.
With a current enrolment of over 3,000 students, the School, through a broad-based education and practical training programme, strives to create an environment conducive for the nurturing of an entrepreneurial spirit and a global mindset among the students.
The Courses
The School offers the following courses:
- Diploma in Accountancy
- Diploma in Banking & Financial Services
- Diploma in Business Information Technology
- Diploma in Business Studies
(with final-year options in Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management, International Business, Marketing, and Service Management) - Diploma in International Business
- Diploma in Tourism & Resort Management
Nurturing the Spirit of Entrepreneurship
True to the entrepreneurial tradition of the polytechnic, BA was the first business school at the polytechnic level in Singapore to mount an Entrepreneurship Option for its Business Studies students. This option caters specially for students with entrepreneurial aspirations.
Entrepreneurship students learn the practical problems of getting a real business venture started under the Experiential Training for Entrepreneurship Development (EXTEND) programme. Final-year students act as student mentors to advise and guide secondary school students on the many aspects of starting new businesses.
Students also work with commercial enterprises for business development and non-profit organisations on social entrepreneurship. For example, our students collaborated with Singapore Cable Car Pte Ltd to recommend ways to revamp its outlets. Some of the students' proposals were adopted by the company.
BA also introduced a module on Enterprise Creation & Development in all its business diplomas to provide the opportunity for all business students to acquire skills in starting a business. Students can also work full-time on their start-ups in the last six months of their course.
All first-year business students are challenged to come up with creative and innovative ideas. Through the School's Innovation Development and Entrepreneurship Advancement Scheme (IDEAS), their proposals are assessed and rewarded to encourage entrepreneurship. Students can apply for seed funding of up to $3,000 under the Polytechnic's EnterpriZe! scheme.
Our budding student entrepreneurs also have the opportunity to learn first hand from business mentors via ASME's Venture Incubator Programme @ Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Student ventures have been adopted for mentoring by entrepreneurs and professionals at the recommendation of ASME (Association of Small and Medium Enterprises). The mentors provide encouragement, practical advice and open network channels for their mentees.
Connecting with Industry
A major thrust of the School is to forge and maintain links with various sectors of the industry. Some of our industry partners include:
- Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (ASME)
- Franchising & Licensing Association (FLA)
- International Trade Institute of Singapore (ITIS)
- Singapore Human Resource Institute (SHRI)
- Singapore Institute of Directors (SID)
- Workforce Development Agency (WDA)
- Major international and local Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firms
The School also provides a variety of platforms for the exchange of expertise and experience with industry in the form of:
- Consultancy services
- Joint industry seminars and programmes such as
- Advanced Diploma in International Business (in collaboration with ITIS)
- Specialist Diploma in Franchise Management (in collaboration with FLA)
- Diploma in Hospitality Management (in collaboration with Meritus-Marina Mandarin Hotels (MM) Group & United Overseas Land Group)
- Diploma in Retail Management (awarded by WDA)
- Customised corporate training courses
- Product/market studies, business plans and ongoing business development guidance offered to the Polytechnic’s student ventures.
Learning through Internships
The School's Accountancy Practical Training (APT) programme provides students with an internship programme of about six months with industry partners.
As part of this programme, students are attached to major international accounting firms, government-related agencies and commercial organisations to work alongside full-time employees. This programme allows students to acquire a sound accounting and auditing knowledge, and develop competencies and analytical skills to provide a meaningful contribution in the commercial environment.
An Industrial Attachment Programme (IAP) of about six months is also available to selected students from the Diplomas in Business Studies, Banking & Financial Services, Business Information Technology, and Tourism & Resort Management.
Industry-Based Programmes
Under the Realistic and Applied Learning (REAL) programme launched in 2000, marketing students are grouped into business units in their final year. Students not only plan, implement marketing strategies and make business decisions but are also empowered to be “business owners”, responsible for the bottom lines of their respective enterprises.
Students also have opportunities to drive marketing strategies and manage products or service lines of companies such as Amore Fitness Pte Ltd, Singapore Post Ltd, StarHub Ltd, and Unispark (authorised distributor of Tupperware). Other companies associated with the programme include Singapore Mint, MobileOne Ltd, Anderson 's of Denmark , Expressions International and Meyson Jewellery Pte Ltd.
Another programme is the Integrated Industry Programme through which students are attached to companies for two months during their vacation to work on company-based projects in various business sectors such as retail, tourism and information technology.
Community-Based Programmes
The School also has a community–based programme employing Service-Learning (S-L), a learning and teaching approach, to develop youths through the experience of serving the community. S-L is incorporated into a module, Work-Integrated Learning (WIL), which is taken by final-year Business Information Technology (BIT) students.
Through the WIL module, the School received the Samsung-DigitALL Hope grant in 2003, as well as the Youth Development Fund (YDF) grant from the National Youth Council in 2004, 2005 and 2006 to train reformative trainees in basic IT skills, set up an IT centre at the Prisons Aftercare Supervision Section (PASS) in Jalan Afifi near Paya Lebar, as well as organise the graduation and Yellow Ribbon ceremonies for the trainees.
In 2006, the WIL students received the Young Change Makers (YCM) grant for a tri-partite project between the BIT students, Industry and Services Co-operative Society (ISCOS) Youth Wing and the Peace Connect Neighbourhood Link (PCNL). The WIL students worked with ISCOS Youth Wing members to help design a dynamic website and set up a simple social enterprise benefiting the old folks at PCNL.
The WIL programme was awarded the National Service-Learning Award 2006 for the 2005 project titled “Be the Light of Someone's Life”.
Community Service Programmes
BA CARES (Community And Reachout EndeavourS) is the community outreach arm of the School of Business & Accountancy. It provides a platform for students to serve the community both locally and overseas, and gives them opportunities to lead projects, develop their talents, initiate new programmes, negotiate with sponsors, and pursue their passion of serving the less privileged.
Every year, four BA CARES teams participate in overseas community service expeditions under the Youth Expedition Programme (YEP) of the National Youth Council (NYC) to countries that include Cambodia, Thailand, East Malaysia, China and the Philippines.
The students contribute to creating better environments and help improve the English-speaking abilities and other life-skills of local children. On returning to Singapore, the students initiate many local community outreach programmes and activities, continuing the spirit of service and giving.
In 2006, the BA CARES students received the following awards:
- NP Student Excellence Award (Best Community Service) 2006
- Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes Team Merit Award 2006
- National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) Gold 2006 – 5 students
Last updated: January 2009