She wanted a student loan but got a full scholarship
After graduating with a Nitec in info-communications technology in 2015, Miss Nur Dayana, 20, wanted to study something completely unrelated - human resource management.
So she worked at a student care centre to save money for a diploma at PSB Academy.
But half of her $1,000 salary went towards her family's expenses, and they could not afford the $5,000 for a part-time diploma course.
Her older brother had to take a student loan for his part-time degree, so she decided to also apply for a student loan from the Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda).
To her surprise, she was offered a full scholarship for her part-time diploma instead.
She said: "My parents were very happy, they told me to study properly. For scholars, attendance is important, so no matter how tired I was, I dragged myself to school."
Miss Dayana would go for classes after work three times a week, and then continue to work on assignments after going home past 10pm.
Though she thought of giving up many times, she eventually passed all her modules on the first try.
She said: "With a student loan, I would have taken a long time to pay off the full amount, so the scholarship was my motivation to go to school... I didn't want to waste or regret losing the scholarship."
On Saturday, PSB signed an agreement with the Eurasian Association (EA), Mendaki and Sinda over the next three years to help more students like Miss Dayana by funding 207 scholarships worth $2.7 million for students.
PSB has worked with Sinda since 2012 and Mendaki since 2014, while EA is a new partner. The signing was held at PSB's new campus at Marina Square, which will be completed in May.
Acting CEO of PSB, Mr Derrick Chang, said: "We see education as a strong enabler. We wanted to put as many keys of education into as many students' hands as possible. "Financial constraints should not be why students don't get an education."
MORE SCHOLARSHIPS
CEO of Mendaki, Madam Rahayu Buang, added: "We hope in the next three years, there'll be more students who can take this on.
"We also hope that like PSB Academy, other institutions will offer such scholarships for our Malay/Muslim students."
Last December, Miss Dayana graduated from PSB with a diploma in HR management.
She was also just promoted at the student care centre where she works. She now earns about $1,800 a month and has already applied to study for a degree in the same course.
She said: "After this, I really want to step into the HR line. I definitely want to use my diploma, I took it for a reason."
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