Centre for International & Professional Experience
The Centre for International & Professional Experience (CIPE) was established to create a portfolio of global opportunities that will enhance students’ academic learning, broaden their perspectives and hone the skills and character they need to succeed as students today and leaders tomorrow.
CIPE integrates traditionally separate (and often siloed or competitive) components of experience-based learning (such as study abroad, summer sessions, internships, career services, leadership and service programming, and research attachments) under one roof. This allows for a student-centred and holistic approach to personal, professional and intellectual development.
CIPE is a product of the College’s firm belief that the experiences students have outside of the classroom can be just as formative and important in their career and life path as what is taught inside the classroom. Co-curricular and extracurricular experiences are foundational pillars of the College’s pedagogy. CIPE is therefore committed to supporting every Yale-NUS student in having an international and/or an internship experience.
CIPE has a team of dedicated advisors who work with every Yale-NUS student to identify and pursue learning opportunities aligned with their values and developmental goals.
CIPE coordinates internships with employers across Asia, the United States and Europe with a wide array of leading companies, public sector organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the fields of the arts, health, community advocacy, information technology, consulting, finance, journalism, and law. At the same time, it also encourages and supports students to search for opportunities on their own.
Students have interned with leading organisations like Goldman Sachs, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Facebook, Microsoft, and the United Nations. These organisations have taken on Yale-NUS students because they value the breadth and rigour of analytical thinking that a liberal arts and sciences education provides, considering it essential for leadership in today’s world, where the ambiguity and complexity of problems demand interdisciplinary and innovative approaches.
International experiences are essential in teaching adaptability, flexibility, and the ability to see things from another person’s or culture’s perspective. International immersion experiences, in particular, often takes one out of one’s comfort zone and requires one to cast aside traditional assumptions of how to do things, honing one’s ability to adapt to different norms. Not only can students learn self-awareness from these kinds of experiences, they can also become more adept at thinking outside of the box – skills important both for personal growth and in their future workplace.
The majority of Yale-NUS students will have at least one overseas experience. The Centre for International & Professional Experience (CIPE) facilitates overseas and internship opportunities, and works individually with students to identify and pursue learning opportunities that are aligned with their values and development goals. There is also a wide range of opportunities for study abroad and summer programmes that students can participate in. Learn more about these here.
In today’s competitive and dynamic world, employers look at more than just the student’s degree. What makes someone marketable is not a particular degree from a particular place, but how they distinguish themselves among the plethora of graduates out there, the experiences that make them different, and how well they are able to communicate these to potential employers. One of the leading weaknesses CEOs and business leaders cite in today’s graduates is in the area of ‘soft skills’: the ability to manage a diverse workforce, to think across disciplines, to make connections that are not intuitive, and to work on cross-cultural teams.
A liberal arts and sciences degree has the potential to help students learn all these things in a unique way. First, the experiences that a Yale-NUS education provides, where every student has an international and/or an internship experience, will be a key competitive advantage as they seek to distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace. CIPE’s emphasis on communication and presentation skills, and its programmes to prepare students for the world beyond Yale-NUS, will help hone students’ abilities to communicate and show potential employers and graduate or professional schools what they are passionate about and excel in.
Yale-NUS graduates have found employment in industries like business and management consultancy, information and communication, financial and insurance, and education. Employers of our graduates include Bain & Company, Facebook Inc, GSK, Credit Suisse, SAP Innovation Centre, Drew & Napier, and Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and National Arts Council.
Liberal arts and sciences students are exposed to multidisciplinary perspectives – a very important factor in the workplace today, where complex issues require a broad understanding of the field, the ability to be critically analytical and the capacity to make sound decisions. Liberal arts and sciences graduates go on to successful careers in every profession and industry. Leaders who have had the benefit of a liberal arts and sciences education include:
- The founders of Apple, FedEx, and IBM;
- The last four Presidents of the United States and scores of their cabinet members;
- The President of the World Bank and the CEO of Goldman Sachs;
- Hundreds of Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners,
- Leading performers, artists and media personalities including Natalie Portman, Anderson Cooper, Yo-Yo Ma and many others.
According to the annual Joint Graduate Employment Survey (JGES) conducted by the five Autonomous Universities in Singapore every year, fresh graduates from Yale-NUS College are highly sought after in the marketplace. 9 in 10 graduates from the College’s first two cohorts found employment within six months of completing their final examinations.
Yale-NUS graduates are currently employed in industries like business and management consultancy, information and communication, financial and insurance, and education. Employers of our graduates include Bain & Company, Facebook Inc, GSK, Credit Suisse, SAP Innovation Centre, Drew & Napier, and Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and National Arts Council.
Approximately 10 percent of our senior class go directly to graduate school. Our alumni have pursued Master’s and PhD programmes in the world’s top institutions, including but not limited to Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Cornell University, MIT, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Tsinghua University, as well as University of Pennsylvania and Duke University Medical School. Our graduates have also secured prestigious and highly competitive scholarships such as the Rhodes Scholarship, Schwarzman Scholarship and Yenching Scholarship.
