Ng Wei Lun likes to be in the thick of the action. In his quest to find an area of work that would allow him to be more hands-on, he made the move from a policy-planning role in healthcare to operations in a small e-commerce company.

Having graduated in 2015 with a major in Psychology, Wei Lun’s initial computing skills were mostly self-taught, from Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms and even YouTube. “It reached a point where I realised that without formal training, I could not proceed further.

He started with an undergraduate level programme, before enrolling for the Graduate Certificate in Computing Foundations

“The professor kept iterating that we were here to learn the fundamentals and that really resonated with me”, he remembers, “and I really enjoyed solving the programming challenges and assignments.” 

He was able to apply many of the concepts: “The course gave me a chance to understand what they really mean for my business, for the company and operations.”

Wei Lun believes that it is important to upgrade ourselves, as the world is moving so fast, and what we have learnt may lose their relevance over the years. “I want to learn as much as I can”, he said, adding that he will keep taking courses as long as he has the time for it.

A Master of Computing degree will be the next step for Wei Lun, who is also potentially interested in other graduate certificates such as artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.

To people interested in Continuing Education and Training (CET), he encourages them to try simple online courses as a start. But there will always be a time where they will want to go deeper, and that is where proper guidance, mentorship or formal education will have to come in.