Actually this is not all true la. Yes progress is slow at STAA... guess some things remain the same..... but eventually it gets done. Just don't expect things to happen immediately. The weather in blt does not help as well most of the time except between the months of Jan to May. Aim to get the vfr flights done during this period.
Its perhaps not the best deal in STAA but hey you want that job to be a pilot you got to get that license to begin right. This one is take it or leave it. No 2 ways about it at this point to get a CAAS license. (Leave out the ppl who were deemed suitable for cadetship la.)
Anyway the current batches have a better deal. You get a CAAS license. Its much easier to land yourself an airline job in Singapore. The issue at hand then is when the airlines want to hire. No one can tell you when this happens. It comes down to dumb luck. When you get that call for an interview you better be prepared.
If you don't make it to the airlines at first, there are still other options. Take up that flight instructor job for one or look at options in other countries. It may be low paying, it may be in a backwater place and life sucks and you may have had to go through a lot of trouble to convert your license but you will still be clocking hours and eventually you will have enough hours to be in a better position to apply again for the airlines or for a nicer job at least. You just need to figure out how you will live out that 2 maybe 3 or 4 years of "hell" while you're clocking those hours. Nothing happens immediately. If you expect it to then well you'll most likely get badly disappointed.