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JOURNEYS OF RESILIENCY
The pandemic cut deep through the family for 34-year-old Muhammad Azroy Shazwan. He became the sole breadwinner.
Azroy has always nurtured his creative side. His family had a keen interest in all things artistic, and Azroy was exposed at a young age to interior design and fine art. Despite these interests, Azroy took a diploma in real estate facilities management as he thought it was a more practical choice. Still his passion for art just kept burning on. After he completed his diploma, he realised that money was not everything. Azroy went on to pursue a diploma in design communications and began his creative career.
During the pandemic, Azroy witnessed businesses shuttering. As the months wore on, the then-Senior Graphic Designer at Aux Media Group found himself worrying about his own job and the company’s progress.
“My role was to develop artwork for event collaterals, such as brochures and backdrops. Deep in my heart, I feared being laid off.”
Thankfully, Aux Media Group shifted gears and participated in Workforce Singapore's Career Conversion Programme (CCP) for SME Executives, reskilling its employees to take on new roles in Extended Reality (XR). As the next frontier in event technology, XR was used by Aux to produce online events such as the SingapoReimagine Global Conversations forum series by the Singapore Tourism Board. Azroy took a 6-month course from October 2021 to March 2022 where he worked on his video-editing and creative communication skills.
“XR technology merges physical and virtual realities. It is a digital environment onscreen with absolutely no boundaries. Want to see yourself in a desert or under the sea? If you can dream it, we can probably do it.”
Today in his new role as a Virtual Production Developer, Azroy is part of a team working on graphic elements in these XR environments. One of his most memorable projects includes the opening sequence of the Star Awards 2021, where he worked on a virtual set to feature the Awards’ host in outer space.
Armed with new knowledge in an emerging industry, Azroy’s next steps are clear. “It is essential to keep learning and growing. I want to master animation and motion graphics next!”
To learn more about WSG’s CCPs, visit https://go.gov.sg/wsg-ccp1
From Arts to Medicine ; How did they do it
SG_0_G_20220630_N_STTF_SG_PGB3_33a144.pdf
From ITE to success & back to ITE : How did they do it
SG_0_G_20220625_N_STST_BIG_pgA19TOA21_338198_ITE Last resort no more.pdfST noted that ITE saw an increase in graduates returning to their alma mater to be part of their teaching staff.
The report carried interviews with ITE alumni:
· Jonathan Toh who started as a social work assistant with Care Corner and later became a counsellor and social worker running and developing programmes for at-risk youth. Toh took the opportunity when he saw a job opening at NIE.
· Shuner Villaneuva Leong graduated with a Nitec in beauty therapy and an outstanding graduate award. After a year-long stint as a therapist in a hotel, she decided to return to ITE as a teaching assistant in 2010. She shared that a lot of students are good with their hands and get demoralised when people want them to change and do something different, or tell them they should work in an office. She hoped to train her students so that they can improve and do better than themselves.
· Thong Chee Chung, Director of the school of electronics and infocomm technology at ITE College West came from the institute’s predecessor known as the Vocational and industrial Training Board. He said that making learning authentic for ITE students was a top priority and that he hoped to give students a sense of accomplishment and achievement from this route.
· Derrick Lee, co-founder and chief technology officer of Accredify, a start-up that supports companies in managing and verifying documents digitally, graduated with a higher Nitec in information technology in 2012. He shared that ITE had done a good job in training students with very precise skills and knowledge needed to join a specific industry or trade.
Read the article to find out their personal journeys of discovering their strengths and building their skills at ITE, as well as continuing to upgrade and excel in their respective industry.
From NT stream to Law student: How did Jason do it
"That night, for the first time, I took a hard look at what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to study, to change my life, to make my mum proud of me. I wanted to give her a better life, and I didn't want to waste mine."
Jason's education & career pathway
⤚ PSLE Score: 151 ➸ St Andrew's Secondary School NT stream ➸ Private O levels: 16 points for Best 5 subjects) ➸ 3-year A level's course at Millenia Institute (MI) + diploma in psychology from a private school at the same time ➸ 3 As for A levels ➸ Law at SMU ➸ Work as a prosecutor at a government agency ↠
“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because its trust is not on the branch but on its own wings.”
Charlie Wardle
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