Career Compass

Overview

A new career preparation initiative for the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) students, the Career Compass Series, comprises four courses to be completed over four years of studies. These courses constitute the main structure of our 4-year Career Readiness Roadmap, which aims to provide a formal framework to help students with their career planning across the whole duration of their undergraduate journey.

With effect from Semester 1 of Academic Year 2021/2022, the courses will be allocated to CHS undergraduates, one course for each year, and delivered by the Centre for Future-ready Graduates (CFG). These courses will apply to all CHS undergraduates Cohort 2021 onwards, including students in special programmes (Double Degree Programmes (DDP), Joint Degree Programmes (JDP), Concurrent Degree Programmes (CDP) and Cross-Disciplinary Programmes (XDP)). The courses will not apply to Pharmacy students or DDP students whose first degree (home course) is not in CHS.

By following the roadmap laid out in the Career Compass Series, students will:

·   Gain a better understanding of their career interests and aspirations

·   Develop their own career preparation plan, with guidance from an assigned career advisor

·   Get a headstart to their career preparation, by taking guidance from the year to year milestones laid out in the courses

·   Acquire relevant industry knowledge, experience, and skills that strengthen their profile

·   Enhance employability upon graduation

The Career Compass courses will be coded as HS1401, HS1402, HS1403, HS1404 and include a suffix (‘A’ or ‘S’) indicating the host faculty (e.g., HS1401A is the version of the course offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and HS1401S, by the Faculty of Science). CHS students will access the Career Compass courses offered by the faculty of their declared primary major. CHS students with undeclared primary majors may be allocated the Career Compass courses with either ‘A’ or ‘S’ suffix.

Overview of Courses

 

HS1401S
Career Compass I
HS1402S
Career Compass II
HS1403S
Career
Compass III
HS1404S
Career Compass IV

Allocation of Courses

The respective course will be pre-allocated to CHS students in Semester 1 of each academic year, in accordance to their course code. Each course will run over the full academic year (Semester 1 and Semester 2).

The Career Compass Series is the first gateway serving to connect CHS students’ with early career exploration and planning. Though the Career Compass Series is not a graduation requirement, students are not permitted to drop the courses themselves.

Course Description

This course provides a brief introduction to the future of work and provides the direction for students to build essential core skills and succeed at internships. Topics include increasing self-efficacy and strategic career planning with the help of readily available resources. 

This course delves deeper into acquiring the essential career skills, and to seek greater industry exposure through various forms of experiential learning beyond the classroom, with guidance from career advisors.

This course focuses on ensuring students are ready in securing an internship or research projects, to enhance their employability.

In this course , students will work on their job search strategy. The focus will be on strengthening their work-readiness skills, updating their resume and improving their interviewing skills, as they actively apply for jobs in their graduating year.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

· Appreciate and utilise the 4-year career readiness roadmap to plan their experiential learning

· Gain a better understanding of their career interests through relevant profiling tools

· Establish partnerships with assigned career advisors and receive dedicated advisory support throughout their four years of studies

Students will be able to:

· Gain insights through site visits, seminars and career coaching

· Optimise decision making based on resources and opportunities available

· Complete specific learning outcomes identified in supplemental documentation provided as part of the internship application process

Students will be able to:

· Learn to appreciate work and its function in various industries

· Gain practical experience in a real-life project/internship

· Build a professional network that can be a resource for students

· Articulate and apply principles learned in and outside of the classroom to an internship experience

Students will be able to:

· Recognise the value of gaining relevant industry knowledge and job application skills

· Master communication, interpersonal and other critical skills in the job interview process

· Develop work competencies for a specific profession or occupation through multiple internships

· Work with assigned career advisors on their job applications and work readiness skills

Planning guidelines
Students are expected to complete a set of deliverables stipulated within each module. These activities are primarily career prep-centric, and can be completed at their own pace (but still within the grading timeline).

Students are strongly advised to review the set of deliverables as early as possible, and to check on their schedules (especially for workshops or events) where appropriate.  We encourage students to complete the majority of activities in the early part of the semester to allow for ample practice time and personal reflections.

Credits and grading
This is a non-crediting bearing module, and its grading will have no impact on your CAP. Students will be awarded a CS (Completed Satisfactorily) grade upon fulfilling the requirements stipulated in each module.

Students need not have to repeat the module should they get a CU (Completed Unsatisfactorily) grade. We will still proceed to allocate the next module to him/her in Semester 1 of the following academic year. That said, the career advisor may implement separate intervention to help these students who may need more support.

The grades for the career compass modules will not be reflected in the students’ transcripts.

Students on LOA, NOC, SEP, JDP, CDP or FDDP
For students who are on leave of absence (LOA), NUS Overseas College programme (NOC), Student Exchange Programme (SEP), JDP, CDP or French Double Degree Programme (FDDP), we will re-allocate the appropriate module to them during their non-LOA, NOC, SEP, JDP, CDP or FDDP semester, based on their course code.

CA Components and Grading

Frequently Asked Questions

A new career preparation initiative for College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) students, the Career Compass Series comprises four courses to be completed over four years of studies. These courses constitute the main structure of our 4-year Career Readiness Roadmap, which aims to provide a formal framework to help students with their career planning across the whole duration of their undergraduate journey.

The respective courses will be pre-allocated to CHS students in Semester 1 of each academic year. Each course will run over the full academic year (Semester 1 and Semester 2). Students can complete the recommended tasks at their own pace.

The courses are compulsory for all CHS students. They are non-credit bearing (0 Unit) and do not count towards the GPA. Students will be awarded a CS (Completed Satisfactorily) grade upon completing a set of recommended tasks specified in each course.

Please visit https://www.science.nus.edu.sg/undergraduates/career-preparation/career-compass/ for more details on Career Compass Series.

Career Catalyst (CFG1002) is a 2 Units, unrestricted elective course offered by NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates (CFG). CHS students can register for the course in Year 1 Semester 1 via https://nus.edu.sg/cfg/students/career-ready/career-catalyst. It will be pre-allocated to those who have not taken the course in Semester 2.

As it is an unrestricted elective course, students are allowed to drop it, though they are not encouraged to do so. If they passed CFG1002 in Year 1, they would have fulfilled a substantial part of the recommended tasks for the first year HS1401 Career Compass I course, which is compulsory for all CHS students to take.

Please note that Career Compass and Career Catalyst (CFG1002) are two different programmes AND Career Catalyst is not a substitute for Career Compass.

Please visit https://nus.edu.sg/cfg/students/career-ready/career-catalyst for more details on Career Catalyst.

Career Compass: The courses are compulsory and non-credit bearing (0 Unit). They can be completed at your own pace over 2 semesters. They will be graded CS/CU and do not count towards the GPA. Nevertheless, students will be tracked on the completion of tasks to ensure that they are on the right track in their career preparation.

Career Catalyst: It is a 2 Units, unrestricted elective course. It will be graded CS/CU and do not count towards the GPA. Students are encouraged not to drop the course though they are permitted to do so. If they passed the Career Catalyst (CFG1002) course in Year 1, they would have fulfilled a substantial part of the recommended tasks for the first year Career Compass course (HS1401), which is compulsory for all CHS students to take.

Career Compass: The respective courses will be pre-allocated to CHS students in Semester 1 of each academic year, in accordance to their course code.

Career Catalyst: CHS students can register for the course in Year 1 Semester 1 via https://nus.edu.sg/cfg/students/career-ready/career-catalyst. It will be pre-allocated to those who have not taken the course in Semester 2.

The courses are only pre-allocated to CHS students admitted from AY2021/2022 onwards. Current (non-CHS) students are not required to take the Career Compass courses. They are encouraged to connect with their Career Advisors (CAs) for career guidance. The CAs will provide similar career support for both CHS and non-CHS students.

Students may get a CU (Completed Unsatisfactorily) grade if they are unable to fulfil the requirements of the course. Although a CU grade would not have an impact on their GPA and they are not required to repeat the course, the career advisors may implement separate intervention to support these students so that they get back on track in career preparation.

No, you are not permitted to do so. If you took and passed CFG1002 in Year 1, you would have fulfilled a substantial part of the recommended tasks for the first year HS1401 Career Compass course, which is compulsory for all CHS students to take. However, Career Catalyst (CFG1002) is not a substitute for Career Compass (HS1401).

You will be allocated to either HS1401/2/3/4S or HS1401/2/3/4A in each respective years based on your first major.

If you have not declared your major, then you would be allocated at random to either course.

You will be allocated the HS1401A/S course that corresponds to your new major in Semester 2. If you have submitted your Assignment in Semester 1, you are not required to re-submit in Semester 2. For any further queries, please contact the FASS/FoS Career Compass Administrator.

Please contact the FASS/FoS Career Compass Administrator for assistance.

Students can apply for credit bearing internship modules in Y1 Special Term under FASS Internship Programme (FASSIP) or FoS Undergraduate Professional Internship Programme (UPIP), depending on your course code.  Students can also check out CFG Vacation Internship Programme during Winter (Dec-Jan) and Summer (May-Jul) vacation.  They can look out for these internship opportunities on the NUS TalentConnect portal.

For students who are on LOA, NOC, SEP, CDP, FDDP or JDP, we will re-allocate the appropriate module to them during their non-LOA, NOC, SEP, CDP, FDDP or JDP semester. Due to the absence, they may have to complete one of the Career Compass modules in ONE Semester, depending on the Semester in which they are absent and the length of absence. For enquiries on the above, please contact the course coordinator.

You can visit https://chs.nus.edu.sg/current-students/ under the Career Advisory section for the links to FoS and FASS Career Advisors page.

Details of the recommended tasks to be completed for each course will be listed in the Canvas page of the course.

You can also refer to https://www.science.nus.edu.sg/undergraduates/career-preparation/career-compass/ for a general overview.

Contact Us

Queries relating to course allocation

Queries relating to the assessment tasks and grading

FoS Career Compass Course Coordinators
 
Ms Josephine Chng
 
Ms Jessica D/O Rajamanickam
FoS Career Advisors