Learning new skills to boost her HR journey
The PaCE@NTU FlexiMasters offers working adults like Ms Jacqueline Ng access to a wide range of in-demand courses and the flexibility to learn at her own pace
By Mary Wu
July 5, 2022
Mechanical engineering graduate Jacqueline Ng began her career working with machines. Today, she works with people as an assistant human resources (HR) director.
Her first job as a mechanical engineer management trainee at an oil and gas company took her on stints to various departments, one of which was HR. That was in 2010, two years after she graduated from Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) mechanical and aerospace engineering programme.
Her switch to HR began with on-the-job training, where she learnt about the wide spectrum of HR functions such as talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, talent management and succession planning. This made her realise that HR was the “backbone that holds the other business functions together so that an organisation can progress”.
In 2015, she pursued a self-funded postgraduate diploma in HR and organisational development and change at the Singapore Human Resources Institute.
Leveraging data to make sound HR decisions
In February, she signed up for FlexiMasters courses on HR Thought Leadership (For HR Practitioners) at NTU’s Centre for Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE@NTU). She had heard about the FlexiMasters from her supervisor.
The HR Thought Leadership specialisation is one of more than 40 specialisations across a wide spectrum of multi-disciplinary areas offered by NTU’s colleges and schools, institutes and centres that are available under the FlexiMasters.
There is no prerequisite for the individual courses under the FlexiMasters. Upon completion of each course, the learner will earn credits that can be stacked towards a FlexiMasters certificate. The learner can also use all credits earned from completed FlexiMasters courses to apply for credit transfer to the relevant NTU Masters’ programme(s)
“Going the FlexiMasters route is less stressful for working adults like myself as each FlexiMasters course can be completed within two to three days to an entire semester of 13 weeks depending on the academic unit it carries. I enjoy the flexibility that is built into the curriculum, and I’m also able to take a breather in-between courses to recalibrate myself,” says Ms Ng.
FlexiMasters in HR Thought Leadership (For HR Practitioners) comprises five advanced business courses. Each course has a self-paced component of nine hours of online lessons coupled with 30 hours of in-class component conducted in both in-person and online lessons.
One of the courses that has made the most impact on her work was the Analytics Technology in Business. “Being data savvy is critical in HR, as we are required to analyse the data by looking at the manpower cost, student-staff ratio, operating budget, and make sound recommendations and proposals to the management,” she notes.
Visit www.ntu.edu.sg/pace/programmes/fleximasters for more information.
