The Professional Conversion Programme for Enterprise Resource Planning funded by the Singapore Government has had an immediate impact on the SAP skill shortage in the region.  The programme, launched in August, enables students to undertake a three month graduate certificate in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems with a specialisation in SAP offered by Victoria University (VU) and a 7 month paid internship.  The costs are subsidized by the Singapore Government. Victoria University, a member of SAP’s University Alliance Program, has incorporated SAP solutions into their curriculum to provide students with a broad range of skills which are in demand by industry.

At the launch of the programme VU’s SAP Program Director, Paul Hawking, predicted that the combination of ERP studies and a paid internship was a unique opportunity for students as the graduates would be in demand by industry.  This prediction has proven to be true with more than half of the first intake gaining fulltime employment in SAP related roles.  Accenture Singapore has employed 8 students with another 9 students being employed by other consulting firms.

“This is a good result and will have a cascading effect.  The course will attract further high calibre students once they realize the potential employment outcomes and at the same time, more companies will want to employ graduates due to their skills. Predictions by analysts are that there are approximately 30,000 skill shortages globally so there is no shortage of employment opportunities,” Hawking said.