Want to be a banker? Be an apprentice first

THE Singapore education system generally gets high marks internationally and at home because our universities are ranked among the top in Asia, and its graduates are sought after by employers.

But when you delve deeper and speak to parents, they quite often grumble over the high cost of tuition, getting into the "right" schools and anxiety over grades - even for those with high-achieving offspring.

If you come across parents whose children have little interest in academic studies, the hair tearing can be intense while their children who see no other way out sometimes become sullen and or silent because they feel trapped in a system which equates a bright future with higher education.

So it was refreshing last month to hear a 19-year-old employee talk about her education journey via the Swiss apprenticeship system to a full-time job at the world's largest private bank during a UBS Asian Journalists Visit to Sw…