Vellapa repeated PSLE twice and dropped out of school at 14,. He pursued vocational training but dropped out after a year.

He joined the army in the logistics line as he had no skills. However he trained and worked his way up to a Transport Supervisor. While at the army, he completed BEST and WISE programmes. At 33, Vellapa took N levels for English and passed. He left the army after 15 years to join CMS (now ST Logistics) as a Supervisor.

He obtained a National Certificate in Supervision; a Certificate in Business Administration and completed a part time diploma course in Logistics Management which helped advance his career. Vellapa attempted to pursued a degree in Logistics Supply Chain Management but failed two of the modules twice as he had no background in Finance and Economics. However he did not give up and finally completed it in December last year.

Vellapa was not afraid to fail and never allowed failure to hamper his desire to improve.