SINGAPORE – When Ms Ang Li Khim received her O-level results in early 1989, she found that she had failed the most important paper, English.
Her late father, a Republic of Singapore Navy regular who was educated up to Secondary 2, was the family’s sole breadwinner. Her illiterate housewife mother would supplement the family’s income by taking on home-based jobs, such as sewing or fixing broken toys. Her natural talent leaned towards mathematics and accounting. In her teens, she took apart her family’s fridge to find out the source of the sound emanating from it. Panic set in when she could not get it to work again.
Not wanting to redo her Secondary 4 year in school, she became a manufacturing operator for about a year while waiting to resit her O-level English exam, which was held annually. Along the way, she also worked as a data entry clerk at an aerospace engineering firm, translating physical asset registries into computerised ones, before landing a job as a contract programmer at National Computer Board in 1992.
Not having a degree has not affected her prospects, she feels. “When you love your job, you will be given the opportunity to prove yourself and advance in your career.”Need a university degree to get a good job? Not for much longer Her persevering nature has not gone unnoticed. Ms Ang was featured in Singapore Computer Society’s Singapore 100 Women in Tech 2023 list. The annual accolade is a partnership between the society, the Infocomm Media Development Authority and SG Women In Tech, an IMDA initiative.