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SINGAPORE — When Muhammad Haikal Nekla dropped out of secondary school at 16 due to family issues and began working full-time to help support them, he intended to go back to complete his education some day. He made good on the promise only many years lateSecondary school dropout, 36, graduates top of his cohort at Republic Polytechnic
SINGAPORE — When Muhammad Haikal Nekla dropped out of secondary school at 16 due to family issues and began working full-time to help support them, he intended to go back to complete his education some day. He made good on the promise only many years later. «When I made the decision to drop out, I told my principal that I would continue my education one day, but I never got around to it,» he said. A discussion with some Republic Polytechnic (RP) interns he was supervising at the restaurant chain where he worked spurred him to return to school at the age of 33, in 2021. «They shared that (polytechnics) took a more hands-on approach to learning, where theories are applied to real-life problems. That was what interested me the most,» said Haikal, who was then an assistant manager at Fish & Co. After more than 15 years of working as waiter, barista and manager in the food and beverage (F&B) industry, Haikal enrolled in RP's diploma of restaurant and culinary operations programme in 2022 via the Early Admissions Exercise, which is open to working adults. Read more