See main story: Local graduates, global skills

Junior professional

Amelia Teo (picture, in pink), 18, an ITE student, was offered a job even before she completes her National ITE Certificate course next month.

What made her a compelling hire to her prospective employee, Synergix Technologies, was that she is an IBM Certified Solution Design - Functional Tester.

Amelia was one of 10 students who took part in a 60-hour elective module.

Her lecturer Shafique Dawood (picture, in tie) was so confident about their abilities that he chose seven of them for IBM's professional certification test in August 2008. All seven were certified.

Amazing race

Melissa Yeo, 20, a Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) graduate, recalled her scholarship interview with the Infocomm Development Authority where she was applying to go to a university.

She was totally unfazed when she was thrown tricky technical questions.

NYP has equipped Melissa with an industrial-strength weapon and she answered the questions easily.

She is an IBM Certified Associate Developer - Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software V6 - an integration and application infrastructure software platform.

The interview panel seemed 'amazed' that a polytechnic graduate had such a certification.

'Some of the interviewers were actually attempting the certification themselves,' said Melissa.

She got the scholarship and is now an information systems undergraduate at the Singapore Management University.

This article was first published in Digital Life, a publication of The Straits Times, on Nov 26, 2008.