The Education Asset Bubble
Attended a talk about “Global Edupreneurs” by the Harriet Business Group today, fully expecting to hear about ideas about education- and instead found myself being sold a ~$4,999 training to become a salesperson to push the company’s education products to “foreign students”. I got to see the private sector and the government from different perspective today, and left quite changed.
I had stepped into the room after registering, and the concept of “edupreneurship” was explained to me. It consisted of 17 slides of pictures of people with cheques of $10,000 to $30,000, with the bold title of “MAKE MONEY!” It is a simple system: become “accredited” to sell degree or certificate programs by paying $4,999 for the 15-week program (which I assume is a basic sales/marketing course), and then earn commissions on each degree program you sell. The company also has a “career consultancy” which brings foreigners to Singapore- each doctor you find that can get a job in Singapore earns you $1,700.
The Singaporean Education website
It was a rather shocking first-hand look at some government policies. Early on, the speaker had illustrated how being an “edupreneur” worked: they had organized a robotics competition and invited students to attend. “Students need training right?” the speaker had asked “and who do you think will pay for it? ” The speaker had then flashed slides about how much the government was spending on education, to illustrate the earning potential inherent there. “People will sign up for it, because the government pays for everything!”
The importance of education was also evident for non-Singaporeans: one of the key slides read “Education a booming 100mn business, sees many thriving as middlemen to help foreigners study here”. Part of the talk had revolved around using “foreigners” as your sales force, as one “satisfied customer” would refer others to you. There was also talk about many foreigners wanting to come to Singapore to work, and the money that could be made being the “middlemen” to bring them in and helping them find jobs.
But perhaps most chilling was that I realised that education is increasingly becoming a bubble asset. I had to wonder whether the value-add of the education they provided was equal to the cost, e.g. robotics training for 6 year olds. But perhaps it is the culture that is to blame- they quoted Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, saying that “in Singapore’s context, without education, there is almost no hope of achieving success in life”. Perhaps we value the signalling value of education too much, distorting our evaluation of talent. In an era where almost every other Singaporean has a degree of some sort, this ability to evaluate talent will have to improve.
