Two questions often linger in my mind. What is my philosophy? What is the company’s philosophy?

When I first started The Pragmatic Lab one and a half years ago, I invested my passion for computers in teaching – an activity I enjoyed very much. I had no clear goals, no idea why I was an educator, nor where this journey would take me. Truthfully, the financial rewards were good, but something was far, far greater. I had the chance to witness my students grow. Clueless employees sent for “company training” were transformed into capable software developers who enjoyed building quality iPhone apps. I witnessed the smiles that crept across my students’ faces as they learnt something new. I forged strong relationships with each and every one of them.

And we’ve kept in close contact since. Today, I continue to meet my ex-students, and they constantly surprise me. One has travelled as far as New York to practise his newfound skill in a startup. Others build startups around the apps they created. As they became better developers, I became a better teacher, and a person as a whole. Not only did they grow, I myself grew.

The more I discovered the innate potential and power of connecting with other human beings through a language atypical of the common tongue, the more I learnt about the true meaning of money. It meant and still means nothing – absolutely nothing. The rich people in my life often turn out the saddest while those who help others are always the happiest. And that reflects the philosophy of the Lab. At The Pragmatic Lab, we want to help the tech community in Singapore. We’re not out to make obscene amounts of money – we use the profits to reinvest in the company and develop Singapore’s emerging tech community. We push for the latest technologies and ditch the old. We hire the finest teachers and constantly train them. We link students to startups to help them find jobs. Today, we have a clear goal: to be the leading technology education provider in Singapore. And we will not stop.

The next few months are going to be even more exciting as we launch new courses and introduce more to the team. Be sure to stay tuned, and remember to find your own philosophy.

- Sidwyn

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For companies and businesses

The recently announced Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) from IRAS allows for up to a 60% cash payout or a 400% tax deduction. Employees who take a course at the Pragmatic Lab will be able to claim these benefits for their company, provided the company pays for the training.

The terms and conditions for the cash payout option at this time of writing are: 1) incurred qualifying expenditure and entitled to PIC, 2) active business operations in Singapore and 3) at least 3 local employees (Singaporean / PR with CPF contributions for the relevant month). A full description of the terms and conditions is available here. There are no terms and conditions for the 400% tax deduction at this time of writing.

As a worked example, if an employee takes an iOS App Development Complete Course for $1500, the company pays the full fee upfront, then claims the 60% ($900) cash payout or a 400% ($6000) tax deduction at the end of the financial quarter or year. The net cost of the course to the company, if it chooses the cash payout option, will only be $600 ($1500-900).

For more information on the Productivity and Innovation Credit, please click here.

For groups

For groups of 4 or more, we provide a 5% discount on all our courses. Please email us at contact@pragmaticlab.com with full names of the participants and we will help sort it out.

For individuals

Financing for individuals is not available at this time. We are working fervently with IDA (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore) to come up with benefits for our students.

We are listening

We hope this piece of information has helped you. If you still have trouble financing your course, please reach out to us at contact@pragmaticlab.com and we promise to help, for we believe that no student should be denied the opportunity and environment to learn at the Lab.

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Thank you to all who’ve helped make The Pragmatic Lab a success.

Check out the full article here.

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Besides sporting the brand new look, we are also pleased to announce some new initiatives here at the Lab:

1. Our Web courses are now streamlined into three simple categories: Foundation (HTML/CSS/JS), Ruby on Rails, and Content Management Systems (WordPress, Joomla). All of these courses will be available from this month onwards and are in addition to our extremely popular courses iOS and Android App Development. Do sign up early, as slots are limited!
2. We have launched an Alumni community. For all students who have attended our courses, you will receive access to our exclusive community, where you can download the latest notes, keep in touch with your classmates, and even showcase your work.
3. A new corporate video. Check it out here!

We at the Lab are firmly committed to providing the best technology education in Singapore, and we invite you to join us on this exciting journey.

Check out all our courses here.

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