Study Study Study for Work

FOR local workers wondering what prospects a career in construction holds, 38-year-old Senthilkumar Karuppiah might well be the 10-year-series answer.

Originally a work permit holder from India who later became a Singapore citizen, he started out as an electrician in the mid-1990s with a monthly salary of just over $600.
Now, he is an assistant project engineer who supervises a team of up to 60 electricians. His pay has risen to around $3,500 a month.

Mr Senthilkumar attributes much of his success to relentless upgrading. He has attended part-time courses throughout his 14 years in the sector.

Within his first year of starting work, he signed up for part-time courses in electrical and computer engineering at the Institute of Technical Education.

He paid the fees, which amounted to around $400 every year, out of his own pocket.

He says: 'I knew if I didn't invest in and improve myself, I would not be able to get anywhere. I would always be just an electrician.'

He attended classes on Sundays as well as on weekday nights.

After five years, he started signing up for courses with the Building and Construction Authority. Not all were related to electrical work.

'I attended courses on how to build a scaffold because I felt I needed to know. Sometimes, when we do electrical fittings on the ceiling, we also use scaffolding,' he says.

The more he learnt, the higher he rose. He became a foreman and was later given larger and larger supervisory roles.

Mr Senthilkumar insists he will not stop until he reaches his ultimate goal of becoming a professional engineer with a degree.

Next month, he will take a significant step towards that goal, starting a three-year part-time course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic that will give him a diploma in technology (electrical).

The constant upgrading has helped him break out from the transient foreign worker mould and enabled him to clinch Singapore citizenship.

Today, he lives in a four-room HDB flat in Bedok with his wife from India and their child, who was born late last year. The child is a Singaporean.

Little surprise then that Mr Senthilkumar disagrees with the notion held by some locals that construction industry jobs are dead ends.

He feels the move by the Government to try and create clearer paths for locals in key construction trades is a step in the right direction.

'I think I've proved you can progress in this industry. It's hard work but you can have a good life. I want people to know that,' he says.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.