Information on PA

Note: Eligible students are given an option to undergo a minimum 8-week or an extended 10-week PA depending on the placements offered to CAO. Students who choose an extended PA would not be allowed to shorten the attachment to 8 weeks subsequently .

Pre-requisites: All students undergoing PA programme should possess basic computing skills and have some knowledge of word processing and spreadsheet as a minimum requirement.

This information column is organised as follows:

Part 1. Introduction

Part 2. Scholarship & Sponsorship Holders

Part 3. Students Sourcing For Own Placements (Local or Overseas)

Part 4. Deliberately Left Blank

Part 5. Phase 1 Selection & Allocation

Part 6. Overseas Attachment

Part 7. Phase 2 Selection & Allocation

Part 8. Phase 3 Selection & Allocation

Part 9. Leave During PA

Vacation Leave & Public Holidays
Special Leave
Medical Leave
NS Training
Subject Registration
Release of Exam Results
Applied Research Project (ARP)

Part 10. Participation In ECA During PA

Part 11. Registration for Academic Subjects

PART 1. INTRODUCTION

The attachment for HSS students is an optional programme. If you opted to do the HSS attachment (HPAP), you must be committed to undergo a minimum 8-week attachment programme at an organisation (local or overseas but exclude GIP).

To be eligible for professional attachment, students must have achieved:

- 70 AUs and above at the beginning of the second semester of each academic year

- at least Year 3 standing

Students are entitled to go on professional attachment only once. On successful completion of the attachment, you will be awarded 5 AUs to be used to fulfill unrestricted electives.

Objective of PA

The objective of the PA is to instil in students the right kind of work attitude and work professionalism so that they can become more effective and productive in their respective organisations much sooner than is usual.

Students attached to organisations will work alongside supervisors, colleagues, clients, etc. to experience working life in a corporate environment.

PA Steering Committee

The PA programme is managed by the Professional Attachment Steering Committee (PASC) comprising the following staff members of HSS and Career & Attachment Office:

Committee Member Dept/School Functional Specialisation Contact Tel Email Address

Mr Loh Pui Wah Chairman, Career & Attachment Office
Director, CAO
67905034 bhng@ntu.edu.sg

A/P Tan Khye Chong Chairman, HSS PA Committee
Asst Chair, HSS

67904781
akctan@ntu.edu.sg

A/P Corneilius Anthony Murphy Director of Undergraduate Programme, HSS
Acting Head (English)
65138085 camurphy@ntu.edu.sg

A/P Yip Sau Leung Economics Division
Economics
67904983 aslyip@ntu.edu.sg

Asst Prof Liu Hsiaopong Chinese Division
Chinese
67906771 hpliu@ntu.edu.sg

Asst Prof Sim Wai Chew English Division
English
63168643 wcsim@ntu.edu.sg

Dr Olwen Bedford Psychology Division
Psychology
63168943 olwenbedford@ntu.edu.sg

Asst Prof Lim Khek Gee, Francis Sociology Division
Sociology
63168739 fkglim@ntu.edu.sg

Mr Koh Eng Beng Committee Secretary, HSS
Asst Manager, Alumni & Student Affairs
65141051 ebkoh@ntu.edu.sg

Mrs Chong-Goh Mei Eng
Career & Attachment Office

-
67904924 megoh@ntu.edu.sg

Miss Tan Kah Hong
Career & Attachment Office

-
67905961 tankh@ntu.edu.sg

Career & Attachment Office (CAO)

The HPAP programme is administered by the Career & Attachment Office located at Student Services Centre, Level 4.

PART 2. SCHOLARSHIP AND SPONSORSHIP HOLDERS

Students who are scholarship or sponsorship holders and would like to be attached to their sponsoring organisations during PA should request the organisations concerned to write to:

The Director
Career & Attachment Office
Nanyang Technological University
Student Services Centre, Level 4
Nanyang Avenue
Singapore 639815

PART 3. STUDENTS SOURCING FOR OWN PLACEMENTS (LOCAL OR OVERSEAS)

The PASC welcomes students to recommend or find their own placements regardless if they are local or overseas attachments. However, only students who are Singapore Citizens or Singapore PRs are allowed to source for their own overseas placements.

Students who are interested to do their attachment in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou are strongly encouraged to apply to the Global Immersion Programme (GIP).

Students who do not apply through GIP but would like to source for their own placements in Beijing, Shanghai or Suzhou are not allowed to approach companies participating in GIP. If the placements of non GIP companies are subsequently approved, the students will be considered as undergoing Overseas Attachment and not GIP and hence will not be involved in the official activities organised for GIP students as part of the Global Immersion Programme.

Please read and understand the following conditions and procedures before you proceed to source for your own placements:

1.

The organisation must NOT be an existing PA organisation (for local attachment). (The "PA - Addresses of PA Organisations" website provides a list of organisations that participated in the last programme. This will serve as a good guide. You can also email to tankh@ntu.edu.sg to verify the status of the organisation that you have in mind; no verbal enquiry will be entertained.)

2.

Student can print out a programme brief write-up for PA to provide the organisation with some information on the programme and the relevant forms for completion.

3.

It is the student's responsibility to ensure that the following forms are returned to Career & Attachment Office before 28 February:

Forms 20A, 21A & RI (to be completed by the potential PA organisation)
Declaration Form (to be completed and signed by the student)
Print-out of the 'Instant Company/Business Information' of the organisation (not required for publicly listed companies, MNCs, government departments or government agencies).

For item (3) above, students may access http://www.acra.gov.sg/Services/Purchase_of_Information/ and make payment for the service. Alternatively, students may seek assistance from staff at Information Desk, Lee Wee Nam Library for downloading the required information and make payments to the Library for the services. Students are required to complete the Biznet search request form and bring along a diskette for the downloading.

4.

Upon receiving the above 4 forms, our office will process the application which is subject to the following criteria:

The programme must be accepted by the School.
There must be no conflict of interest.
The PASC reserves the right to decide if the student will ultimately be attached to his or her attachment organisation.

Student must refer to the PA-Notice website for the status of the own-sourced placement.

5.

Until approval is granted for the student to be attached to his or her own-sourced organisation, he or she continues to participate in the Phase 1 (optional) and Phase 2 (compulsory) selection for the PA programme.

6.

If you are concurrently sourcing for own attachment (with the required forms submitted to CAO by the specified deadline given for own-sourcing) and pending approval and wish to wait for its outcome, you have the following options when offered a placement under Phase 1:

To inform CAO (email to Jenny at limsk@ntu.edu.sg) to reject the offer under Phase 1 within 5 working days from the date of the results, officially published at PA website - 'List of Shortlisted or Selected Students (Phase 1)'.
No action if you wish to accept the Phase 1 offer. You CANNOT request to use your own-sourced attachment for PA subsequently.

Note: For cases where the students'own-sourced applications have already been approved prior to the scheduled students' selection of PA organisations (Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3) they will be barred from participating in them. Visit the 'PA Notices' website to check on the application status.

PART 4. Deliberately Left Blank

PART 5. PHASE 1 SELECTION & ALLOCATION

Phase 1 is scheduled to start in January. Careeer & Attachment Office will notify all eligible students by email of the instructions, requirements and procedures of Phase 1 Selection Exercise. Students can also refer to the email, a copy is posted at PA-Notice website.

Under Phase 1, organisations will select and/or interview students for attachment from resumes submitted by interested students online at PA website. Students will search for attachment programmes and select organisations online.

Students can choose up to two organisations. Shortlisted students may be required to attend interviews during the one-week recess. Please ensure that you are available during the one week break in late Feb/early Mar if you want to participate in this phase.

If successful, students will be assigned to their respective organisations for attachment.

PART 6. OVERSEAS ATTACHMENT

Due to the short duration of PA, overseas attachments that are fully- or partially- sponsored by organisations are few and hard to come by.

Majority of the overseas placements are self-financing where students pay for their own costs in terms of airfare, food and accommodation. Some organisations may pay an allowance to students while others provide accommodation only.

The overseas attachments, if available will be offered under Phase 1 selection exercise.

Students who are interested to do their attachment in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou are strongly encouraged to apply to the Global Immersion Programme (GIP).

The selection criteria are as follows:

1. Eligibility for consideration will depend on academic merit, personal qualities and other selection criteria adopted by the School, and participating organisations.

2. International students are eligible for overseas attachment.

3. The number of placements for Singaporeans and international students of all nationalities will be dependent on the ratio of Singaporean to international student enrolment for the year.

4. Home country placement is not advisable.

5. All scholarship holders must submit a letter of consent from their sponsors for their participation in the overseas attachments at the time of application

6. The same conditions and procedures will apply to students who wish to own-source the overseas PA. Please refer to Part 3 above.

7. Successful students are required to undergo a medical check-up at NTU Medical Centre or any registered general practitioner, at their own expense.

8. As medical costs in a foreign country are very expensive for non-citizens, students selected for the overseas attachment MUST buy insurance cover for medical/personal accident/travel if it is not already provided for by the host organisation. The cover must provide for evacuation and repatriation benefits.

9. Students will normally be paid an allowance which is guided by prevailing norms within the industry in the country of attachment. Different organisation may also offer different package to cover (or not cover) the costs of airfare, accommodation, insurance (medical/personal accident/travel) and other expenses (e.g. meals, transportation, etc.) during the overseas attachment. Students are advised to take these into consideration when applying for the placement.

10. Successful students who are in financial difficulty may consider the following possible sources of financial assistance:

(a) Overseas Student Exchange Programme Loan Fund or Travel Award Scheme administered by Office of Admission (Financial Assistacne). Please refer to their website: http://admissions.ntu.edu.sg/undergraduate/financialassist/Pages/OSEP.aspx

PART 7. PHASE 2 SELECTION & ALLOCATION

Phase 2 online selection will start sometime in March. ALL students should participate in this phase except those who have confirmed their placements in the earlier exercises (Phase I or Overseas Attachment or Own-sourcing) or are required to be attached back to their sponsored organisations which have confirmed the arrangement with Career & Attachment Office (refer to PA-Notice). Eligible students who did not participate in the earlier exercises and did not key in their choices online or any information in Phase 2 would not be assigned to any organisation for PA.

Students will choose up to six programmes/organisations, in order of priority. The system allocates organisations based on the students' choices, up to 6 choices, in order of priority using a computer programme. It is a random ballot, regardless of your academic grades, extra curricula activities, personal traits, etc. Each year, more than 80% of the students will be assigned to an organisation of their choice.

For those unsuccessful, they will have to proceed to Phase 3 selection of organisations/programmes, if there are still available placements.

PART 8. PHASE 3 SELECTION AND ALLOCATION

Under Phase 3, the unsuccessful students will be asked to select the remaining programmes still available based on first-come-first-served basis online. The affected students will be notified by email to view the available programmes first and then participate in the online selection of programmes.

Eventually, all eligible students who want to undergo PA will be placed out for PA.

PART 9. LEAVE DURING PA

(Students are advised to plan the orientation or club activities outside the attachment period. Leave will not be granted for such purpose.)

- Vacation Leave & Public Holidays

Students are not entitled to vacation leave during attachment. Public holidays will be granted according to the prevailing practices of the organisation for its own employees.

- Special Leave

Special leave will be considered for approval only in exceptional circumstances which include:

- compassionate reasons affecting immediate family members (up to 3 days)

- participation in recognised events, e.g. representing Singapore/NTU in sports or cultural events, competition, seminar, conference etc.

Special Leave Application forms are available from Career & Attachment Office (telephone 67904018 or fax 67937925). If you wish, you may download the "Application for Special Leave" form from our website, accessed via Student Link / Academic Matters / Attachment Services.

Student must submit the completed form 7 days in advance, whenever possible, to Career & Attachment Office. The reason(s) for applying for such leave must be stated clearly with supporting documents.

You may have to extend your PA to cover the period of absence depending on the duration and nature of leave.

- Medical Leave

If you are unfit to go to work, you should inform your organisation supervisor as soon as possible. You should submit the original medical certificate to your organisation supervisor and a copy to Career & Attachment Office.

Please note that only medical certificate (MC) issued by Singapore registered doctors are recognised. MC issued by the Chinese sinseh or TCM is not acceptable as supporting document for your leave of absence.

Please write your Name, Matriculation numbers, Course/Specialisation and Year of study on the medical certificate and fax to Career & Attachment Office (attention: Ms Jenny Lim) at 67937925, within 3 days.

You can also scan your medical certificate and email as an attachment to Ms Jenny Lim at limsk@ntu.edu.sg. If you are mailing the medical certificate to CAO, please address it to: Career & Attachment Office, NTU, at Level 4, Student Services Centre, 42 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639815, Attention: Ms Jenny Lim.

If you have taken or are taking more than one week medical leave, please contact Career & Attachment Office, Miss Tan Kah Hong at 67905961 or email tankh@ntu.edu.sg immediately as you will need to extend your attachment to fulfil your PA requirement.

- NS Training

If you are required to go for NS training, you will have to submit the Special Leave Application Form to Career & Attachment Office, at least 7 days in advance of the training. CAO and your PA organisation will jointly decide on your leave application and when approved you are required to extend the attachment accordingly.

- Subject Registration

No leave or time-off allowed. However, Career & Attachment Office will write to the PA organisations to get their consent to allow our students to use the office internet facilities to register for next semester's subjects online.

Please remember to discuss with your organisation supervisor to seek his/her permission before you do your subject registration online.

- Release of Exam Results

No leave or time-off is allowed.

- Applied Research Project (ARP)

No leave or time-off is allowed. You can communicate with your tutor by telephne or email on matters relating to your ARP. If there is a need to meet up with your tutor during PA, kindly arrange the meeting outside the attachment hours.

Part 10. Participation in ECA and Other Activities During PA

You are advised to plan your ECA, such as orientation camps, etc, and other social or religious camps, humanitarian activities or trips outside the PA period as leave will not be granted for such purposes.

Part 11. Registration for Academic Subjects

You are not allowed to register for academic subjects taught during the attachment period.

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Updated on 9 Oct 2009