Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
To be honest, I don't really see why there is such a fuss about the shortage of training contracts for lawyers and how there may be a surplus of lawyers in singapore. The number of training contracts well exceed the number of local law graduates, and given that the employment of fresh nus & smu graduates stands at 100%, local grads are in a great position to be.
Need I remind people that law still has the highest pay across all degrees, and that the % of fresh grads employed straight out of graduation are still the highest amongst all other courses.
The burden of excess graduates will always lie on the people studying law overseas, as according to the law employment survey by the gov firms in sg always prefer sg grads to overseas. Overseas grad employment is currently at ard 70%, as compared to 100% for local grads.
Overseas grads simply find it impossible to find employment overseas as there is already a huge glut of lawyers in UK and in Australia. |
your post is full of nonsense. Dont shoot garbage out of your mouth about things that you dont know.
The number of training contracts may well have exceeded the number of law graduates, but that was probably 5 years ago. the reverse is happening now; definitely it has been in the last one to two years & it will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. its called a "SPIKE in overseas law graduates" for a reason.
employment of
nus and
smu grads, while great, is not at 100%. Don't believe the statistics that come out of
MOE's Graduate Employment Survey as these are all self-reported. an unemployed graduate is far less inclined to return survey responses.
the large numbers of overseas grads are also squeezing local students. we can argue all day about whether law firms still favour local law grads over foreign ones, but the squeeze is very real.
we can also say that local law grads shouldn't be accorded preferential treatment when it comes to the job market. indeed they shouldn't, but why cap the number of places to read law locally so stringently (last i checked, law is still one of the hardest faculties to get into locally besides medicine &
nus dentistry), and then let hundreds of grads to flood the market though paying for their degrees overseas? why not open more places locally, or even start law school in
ntu, so that law is more accessible to students from lower income households rather than flooding the industry with those from higher-middle to upper income households who went overseas? the real shortage in the legal industry is for lawyers who don't come from privileged or comfortable backgrounds and who empathize with the needs of the common man!
finally pay is irrelevant to the question of training contracts. i'm sure many law grads would accept an industry-wide pay freeze or pay cut in return for meaningful employment and a chance for career development. well, at least the more mature ones who wouldn't drool over starting pay.