We were at a lunch meeting with a well-established Singapore-registered airline, to discuss internships for our 3rd year students. [Sorry, I regret we can't tell more, till its confirmed and official].
The Head of Human Resources shared with us how she looks at Math scores when recruiting, as she found that those with better Mathematical skills somehow tend to be better at logical thinking.
Which made me glad that our students in the Diploma in Aviation Management & Services,
do have E. Math (Engineering Maths) as one of their compulsory subjects. Plus the fact that our students have core subjects such as, Project Management, which help them to be better planners AND executors of tasks.
It got me reflecting. When I first joined the airline, many of the top management were Engineers by training and when I left, there were more coming from Finance backgrounds. Sure, in years to come, perhaps you may see more mavericks like Sir Richard Branson and Dato' Tony Fernandes in aviation companies, but even then, most of my students will be entering the workforce into major aviation companies that were started up and built through the years by those with Engineering and Finance training. Which means the selection process would view Mathematical skills and logical-processed thoughts and planning a major asset! Not to mention how things are done and assessed!
In my 15 years living and working overseas in the Aviation Industry, I have found one major advantage why Singapore Aviation and its people have .... and that is the ability to think logically, plan well and execute/deliver .... ON TIME !
So the next time I see my students, I'm going to remind and elaborate to them why all these subjects are important!
:)