A Degree of Change
– By Ann Peters
RAJASEGARAN RAMASAMY, LIFELONG LEARNER AWARD WINNER, PASIR RIS PUNGGOL GRC
People who meet Rajasegaran Ramasamy, today won’t believe that at one point in his life, not so long ago, he was a shy introvert.
Now – bubbly, chatty and eager to meet new people – he admits that he has changed from an introvert into an extrovert, and it’s all thanks to lifelong learning and getting his university degree.
“I used to admire people with degrees and qualifications. And I often felt very shy and insecure in their company,” says Raja, 42, who finished his ‘A’ Levels in 1982, and got his Bachelor of Building honours degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2004. Last year he received a lifelong learner award – jointly organised by MediaCorp and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency – from President Nathan.
Getting the degree bolstered his confidence, but it was the four years of study that really changed him. “It oulded me into a different person,” he says. “It was totally different from anything I’d been through. Everything changed – my maturity level, the way I thought, the way I related to people. I used to be quite tough with people, but I learnt how to communicate better and also use research methods to get information.”
A father of three girls, he is currently a Senior Site Supervisor with Surbana Corporation – a company corporatised from HDB in recent years. He started work after finishing his ‘A’ Levels, as a Clerk of Works, but soon discovered that he could be better off with some qualifications. He then enrolled to study for a Polytechnic Diploma in Civil Engineering but gave it up after a year because “I was not interested in studying and more focused on working then. I’d regularly skip classes to work late.”
But the collapse of Hotel New World in 1985 brought new rules to the worksites and the need for proper qualifications for those supervising contractors. So, for him, it was back to school to study for the National Certificate in Construction Supervision (NCCS), but this time he hadn’t a choice – his job depended on his passing the exam. Soon after, the Singapore Polytechnic offered a Diploma in Building and those with NCCS qualifications could go straigh into the third year. So he took the chance and it later gained him admission to the four-year, part-time degree course at NUS in 2000.
While working and studying, he also got married and had children. They were tough years, he recalls. At times it was so tough that he and his pregnant wife were both working fulltime, studying part-time, and living cramped in a four-room HDB flat with two small children, his parents, and a maid. He was only sleeping a few hours a night and working at a mahjong table in a crowded bedroom. “There was no space to even move.” He would bring his soap and clothes to work and shower in the makeshift bathroom on the construction site before heading off for night lectures. Home by 10pm, it was dinner and more studying till the small hours of the morning.
He credits getting through those difficult years to the support of his family, especially wife, Selvi 39, currently an Assistant Vice Principal at a PAP kindergarten in Punggol.
He says, “When the children were crying or demanding attention she’d take them away and ask me to lock myself in the room to study.” She says, “We were blessed with kids who didn’t give us much trouble. But even when they woke up in the night for milk, he’d say it was a blessing and get to the computer to work.”
Together they remember the hardest time in 2001 when both were working and studying, and she was pregnant with their third child and had gestational diabetes. He says “I wouldn’t give up and neither would she.” The extent of her support was clear when, on the morning of one of his exams, her contractions began but not to distract him, she didn’t tell him. She left for the hospital with her mother-in-law.
He says the degree has helped. He’s been promoted from Higher Technical Officer to Senior Site Supervisor, and when Surbana was corporatised in 2003, he was among those kept on as permanent staff. “Lifelong learning is important especially in our fast paced society where certificates can help ensure employability,” he says.
Photo: Raja and his family. Wife, Selvi, is at the extreme left.
Now, comfortably ensconced in an executive flat in Sengkang, he’s involved in the residents committee (for which he received a service award recently) and also in the union at his workplace. Meanwhile, he’s not resting on his laurels, but has his sights on a Masters degree next – possibly in human resources as he is passionate about working with people.
After that, he’ll be going for a doctorate. “My ambition is to see a Dr before my name,” he laughs. But he isn’t joking!
