Begin your journey of exploration with The Astronauts Collective (TAC) at World X from 14 to 17 July 2021. You might just discover a World that resonates with you.
It’s been a challenging year for all, especially for youth in navigating a fast-changing world. More than ever, young people are more confused about their career path; even planning to put career or education on hold while they wait for the pandemic to be over. Noticing this dilemma, The Astronauts Collective (TAC)’s World X aims to inspire youth in Singapore to explore and discover the diversity of jobs across different worlds of work by bringing together diverse professionals, industries and career paths.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
WORLD X EVENT
When we think about potential careers only in terms of the pay and working hours, it can leave many of us feeling quite uninspired. For our generation of youth, we tend to want jobs that gives our work meaning and a purpose. Building on this need for purpose, TAC has organised a programme surrounding the concept of Worlds in the first three days of World X, from 14th to 16th of July. Here, they will feature diverse professions that contribute towards the betterment of the world in varying ways such as doctors and entrepreneurs developing health tech products alike, contributing to a world of healthier tomorrow.
This World X event is built based on TAC’s concept of Worlds – where jobs and careers are not only done as means of survival, but also holds a place to contribute towards the world around us. This concept of Worlds offers a complementary overlay on top of more conventional category of professions by industry and sector, showing youths that jobs from seemingly different fields can contribute to a common mission and purpose
TAC recognizes that in any work we do, we can contribute in creating a positive change and as such, have created this event to tackle various issues that can be found in different industries. During this segment, participants can try out jobs they are interested in, converse with talented and experienced professionals in their fields of expertise and take part in a moderated interview with aforementioned professionals.
EQUAL WORLD (July 14th)
Starting off with Equal World, the spotlight will shine on social justice issues in different spheres including gender equality, race & religion, local-foreigner relations, persons with disabilities, and so on. A collection of issues that have grown in popularity for both students and young professionals are vocal about, advocate for and are actively taking action to mobilise their peers to advocate for.
On this specific world, participants will be accompanied by figures like Alex Ang, a policy officer at Land Transport Authority who has also worked on inclusive transport policies and initiatives in public transport, including but not limited to, accommodating for the disabled. In addition to Ang, software researcher at National University of Singapore, May Lim will also join the line-up with experience of working in US and China Tech companies as a software developer as well as having co-founded a tech start-up company in the data analytics field. They, along with other experts, will also join the list to discuss what it means to work in a world where everyone has equal opportunity.
Other experts such as policy makers, fintech entrepreneurs as well as non-profit founders will also join the forum and share their passion in pursuing social justice can be achieved through a meaningful career. The aim for all this is to encourage us to hold on to this energy and passion of contributing to the path of a more equal world. That the notion of “equality” can be achieved through a myriad of ways, such as through finding meaningful careers.
SUSTAINABLE WORLD (July 15th)
With the launch of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 earlier this year, sustainability is a key priority in our national agenda. Youths in particular have shown interest in contributing to a more sustainable world, as reflected in their active participation in social mobilisation initiatives as well as advocacy (e.g., SG Climate Rally). In this World, our conversations will focus more on creating a good environment that can be passed down through generations including sustainability finance trader, researcher from forest ecology, to solar engineer who will share how different professions and skills can contribute in creating a more sustainable world—including roles for business, advocacy and education.
Sustainable World will highlight individuals like Alexius Yeo, Director of Carbon InQ, a local company that teaches Agriculture-based experiential learning programmes at schools and corporate firms and Founder of Project 33, a family-initiated farming movement that aims to unite neighbourhoods through community farming, cooking, educational activities and the practice of sharing first. Yeo has also worked in the Philippines with the poor at the country’s first Farm University and Social Enterprise Incubator to farm and landscape edible gardens.
In addition to Yeo, CEO and Co-founder of Altimate Nutrition, as well as winner of this year’s National Youth Entrepreneurship Awards, Gavriel Tan will further jazz up the discussion with his own knowledge and experiences. Tan has co-founded Singapore’s first insect-based protein company, which uses flour made from baked, freeze-dried crickets to make protein bars. The start-up itself aims to tackle key social issues surrounding food insecurity, climate change, hunger and the likes.
INFORMED WORLD (July 16th)
In this new digital age, our society is constantly exposed to a proliferation of data and information. Growing up as during the peak of internet and digital advancements, today’s youths have long been exploring new ways of consuming and sharing information leading to the rise of social media influencers, use of social platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to spread their messages. For friends interested in journalism, data analysis, communications, marketing and content strategy as well as behaviour science, this World is for you.
Discussing about matters surrounding digitisation as well as the sharing and gathering of information in the Informed World, experts such as Low Yee Loong, a fraud detection analyst at Grab, with very diverse careers—from healthcare to fintech and from public to private sector. Along for the ride is Tania Harsono, whose work include being an auditor at one of the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms to being a finance manager at a start-up in order to better align with her career motivations, the two being a part of the TAC main organising team.
TAC hopes to foster the interest and curiosity among youths to show how you can direct your passions towards a meaningful purpose—to create a more informed world, e.g., where news is brought to people in a timely and compelling way; where society can be educated on how to discern between facts and misinformation through a better understanding of data; where issues of concern can be presented in different forms to mobilise and inspire action.
FINAL SEGMENT (July 17th)
Their second and final segment will consist of two parts. Part A surrounds “Star Compass”, a 50-minute long workshop that aims to help the participants of World X to get a better understanding of their own career motivations and in turn, help them find jobs that can motivate them. Upon signing up, you’ll receive a Star Compass questionnaire that asks questions related to your career preferences and interests. We can later receive our own personal Star Compass Report, discover the motivations that matter most to us and find what motivate professionals out there.
Part B of this two-part segment involves their human library called “Open Space” that allows the participants of the event to converse with professionals in their field. Here we can have open discussions with these professionals about creating a meaningful career and share their experiences, widening the network circle of everyone involved. You can even build your network through here!
If all this sounds interesting to you well, what are you waiting for? Click here to sign up to World X now or go to www.hellotac.org/worldx-register and boost your speed to reach the stars!
ABOUT THE ASTRONAUTS COLLECTIVES (TAC) :
The Astronauts Collective (TAC) is a non-profit organisation that helps youths explore the world of work and find meaningful careers, just like how astronauts explore and discover new worlds! With the help of over 300 volunteers, more than 3,500 youths have benefitted from TAC’s career exploration programmes since Jan 2015. They have also designed and launched fully-online as well as hybrid programmes to cater to the COVID-19 situation.
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