Address by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister, Ministry of Education at the SkillsFuture Festival Opening Forum

1. A very good morning to all of you. It is my pleasure to be here today at the SkillsFuture Festival Opening Forum.

SkillsFuture: A Key Pillar of our Social Compact

2. Earlier this year, we announced the introduction of the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme. Our aim was to help Singaporeans aged 40 and above to pursue a skills reboot to support your career progression, and perhaps to kickstart a second career.

3. This is a significant move in a few ways:

1. The first is a statement of our continued investment in our people, not just in the first 15 years of their lives, but in the next 50 years of their lives and indeed throughout their lives.
2. Second, we hope through this investment to make adult learning, continuing education, and training much more affordable and to reduce the opportunity costs for mature workers to reskill themselves.
3. The most important reason we did this is because we want to formally establish SkillsFuture as a key pillar in our social compact.

4. In Singapore, we are determined to reinvest and continuously invest in our people to help our people stay competitive.

5. SkillsFuture, the culture of lifelong learning, will and must help Singaporeans stay competitive and relevant throughout their working lives.

1. But for SkillsFuture to succeed, it goes beyond just finding more public resources, more budget to invest in the various programmes. We also need individuals, industries, and institutions to step up into their roles.

6. Today, I would like to briefly cover some of the initiatives that we would like to see individuals, industries and institutions stepping up to, to take SkillsFuture to the next level together.

Institutions: Enabling Skills Development and Recognition

7. Starting with our training institutions, who must be our key player in the SkillsFuture movement:

1. They provide a wide range of training programmes for diverse learner profiles and skills needs. There are, for example, about 3,000 courses in priority skills areas in the Digital, Green, and Care economies.
2. These training programmes are designed for our working adults. Our investments in Educational Technology (EdTech) and digital infrastructure allowed many training institutions to pivot to asynchronous delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the widespread adoption of blended learning, learners today can learn anytime, anywhere, and at their own pace.
3. Another thing that our institutions must appreciate is this – our adult learners have diverse capabilities. We must build on those diverse abilities and draw out what they already know and share it in a classroom for everyone to learn better together. Many of our adult educators are also industry practitioners eager to pass on their knowledge and expertise. They are passionate about lifelong learning. This is how we can harness the capabilities of our adult learners, enabled by technology, to allow Singaporeans to learn faster and better.

8. We must continue to raise the quality of our institutions' offerings in our adult learning ecosystem, and make our training even more accessible, personalised and market responsive.

1. One example of how training providers can use technology to improve their offerings is through adaptive learning - where it is not a one size fits all concept, where it is not about teaching to the average. Adaptive learning is what many people know in the gaming world as being able to personalise it down to the individual - to learn and to be challenged at your own pace. Smart content platforms can use real-time feedback to personalise recommendations for students. Training providers can also use learning data and feedback to shorten the feedback loop for programme design.
2. One example is Visionary Schoolmen, a local tech firm that has developed an AI-driven platform for workforce upskilling. Their platform, Empathy, uses generative AI to design curriculums around companies' skills gaps, and personalises learning pathways for individuals based on their prior knowledge and learning speed.
3. Continued investment in research and capability building for the adult learning sector also remains a vital catalyst.
4. The Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) is taking the lead in this. IAL is deepening research into adult learning systems and how to help our adult educators upgrade the sector's capabilities.

9. Finding new ways to design and deliver programmes to make learning more accessible to adult learners is also key. One such innovation is the micro-credentials that our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) offer, which provides greater flexibility for adult learners.

10. We know many adult learners are keen to upgrade to a full qualification. The SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme, as well as the ITE Progression Award for ITE graduates, have made it more affordable to do so.

11. But we also know that this is not just about the financial cost. Adult learners may worry that they cannot commit to the full programme as many of them have family and work commitments.

12. Our IHLs are responding to such concerns by delivering their CET full qualifications through micro-credentials.

1. Take, for example, an ITE graduate who would like to upgrade to a part-time Polytechnic diploma while working.
2. He can choose to take up a diploma that is delivered through five Modular Certificates. Each Modular Certificate is delivered over a six-months semester.
3. If he completes one certificate every semester, he would complete the programme in 2.5 years.

13. But because each micro-credential is a discrete packet of learning that can be taken separately, he can also choose to space out his learning and complete the programme over, say 3 years, or more.

14. The flexibility that micro-credentials offer has been well-received by our learners. From 2019 to 2022, the take-up of stackable micro-credentials in our IHLs has increased from 34,000 to 42,000 training places.

15. As our institutions expand their offerings, they must also help learners and employers recognise skills that are acquired.

16. To do this, our IHLs will:

1. Harmonise the naming of micro-credentials, to enable learners and employers to easily understand their level and volume of learning;
2. Put out more information on the micro-credentials they offer, so that learners can make more informed decisions on what formal qualifications they can stack towards; and
3. Look at how to make it easier for learners to compare similar courses, to identify those that suit their upskilling needs.
4. This is important not just domestically, but in time to come, for us to interact with foreign ecosystems. Imagine our own professionals who need to work overseas. How will people recognise our skillsets? If we can organise ourselves well, we can have a system that is well-recognised internally and also externally. It will allow our professionals to go to many other places beyond Singapore and have their skills recognised. This is an important factor that goes beyond our nation.

17. We will continue to innovate our micro-credentials landscape:

1. We will develop more micro-credentials with industry, to cater to learners looking for just-in-time skills upgrading, especially in emerging skills areas.
2. Our IHLs are considering how to cross-recognise one another's micro-credentials, to allow learners to tap on different institutions' strengths by bundling courses across institutions.
3. In future, we will look at bringing high-quality and industry-relevant micro-credentials offered by private training providers into the fold.
4. In Singapore, we should never think that we have six universities, five polytechnics, and one ITE. Instead, we have one ecosystem. My dream is for our adult learners to be able to take their micro-credentials across any of our IHLs - be it ITE, polytechnics or universities, as long as it is relevant to them. One day, we'll be able to cross-recognise and allow adult learners to pick and choose the modules they like from the different institutions as one adult learning ecosystem - and not many disparate IHLs.

Industry: Enhancing Skills Articulation and Recognition

18. Let me now move on to Industry - how our industry and enterprises can contribute to the SkillsFuture movement:

19. Employers play a key role in articulating the skills needed for their job roles, developing and recognising the skills of their employees. This will create greater impetus and confidence for employees to upskill, thereby raising productivity for companies.

20. SSG has also appointed professional bodies and trade associations as Skills Development Partners to support employers in doing so. Employers can tap on different tools to articulate their skills needs.

1. One example is the Skills Profiler tool, a collaboration between SSG and JobKred. It helps SMEs to benchmark employees' skills needs based on their job roles. It can also help to identify skills gaps and training needs, and suggest suitable training programmes.
2. Due to the strong demand, SSG has expanded the pilot from 400 SMEs to 1,400 SMEs. I encourage more SMEs to try out the Skills Profiler tool and join it soon.

21. To help employers recognise the skills and competencies acquired through both formal and informal learning, one of our Skills Development Partners, the Singapore Computer Society (SCS), is introducing the Skills Pathway for Cybersecurity.

1. 13 employers, including ST Engineering and Temasek, are pledging their support for the new pathway today. They will offer internship and job interview opportunities for individuals who have attained selected industry certifications.
2. This will give individuals looking to transit into the cybersecurity sector a clear signal of the skills and certifications they need to acquire, and opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities to companies through internships and interviews.
3. Participating employers will also have access to a wider pool of talent to meet business needs.

22. Our Skills Development Partners are also stepping forward to tap on IHL micro-credentials to meet the skills needs in their sectors. We are piloting a new Industry Validation Track, where Skills Development Partners will:

1. Curate IHL micro-credentials offered in emerging or in-demand areas, and
2. Recognise learners who have acquired the necessary skills through the micro-credentials through industry-recognised certifications.

23. The Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES) is rolling out the IES Chartered Engineer (Singapore) in Sustainability certification pathway to do what I have described.

1. IES has worked with enterprises to set out the key skills required for engineers in sustainability. They have also identified IHL micro-credentials that cover these skills.
2. Learners who have completed the micro-credentials covering the core skills identified by IES and who pass IES' professional assessment will be conferred the Chartership.

24. One company that will support employees to take up this new IES's chartership certification pathway is Singtel.

1. To achieve its target of reaching net zero by 2045, Singtel will use this new certification pathway to grow a core group of experts with expertise in areas such as sustainability reporting and sustainable design.
2. I encourage more companies with sustainable engineering needs to support IES's new pathway, to broaden the pool of talent you can tap on.

25. I hope the industries can articulate the skills sets that you need, recognise the skillsets that your employees have, but more importantly, come and work together as an industry. If our industries can define the skillsets required, our institutions will find ways to meet those requirements. Otherwise, it becomes difficult for our training institutions to package programmes for our workforce.

26. SCS and IES are good examples of how industry can bring together partners within the same industry to define those standards and skillsets that industries require. If done well, this would benefit not just our local industry. In time to come, we would be able to partner with others beyond Singapore and establish wider industry standards.

Individuals: Taking Ownership of Skills and Careers

27. Finally, Individuals. The most important thing is that all of us as individuals must take ownership of our own skills development.

28. The SkillsFuture movement is a key socio-economic strategy to keep our people competitive, preserve our own employability, and to enable our people to realise their potential. But to do this, we must do our part and take ownership over our own career and skills development.

29. For those who aren't sure where to start, consider some of the following suggestions:

1. Engage your company, union, or speak to SSG's Skills Ambassadors to find out how you can pursue upskilling and reskilling to meet your career aspirations;
2. For those who are above 40, look through the over 7,000 programmes that you can use your $4,000 SkillsFuture (Mid-Career) Credit for. This will include full qualifications and quality micro-credentials.
3. You can filter by courses in priority skill areas such as the Care, Green and Digital economies to identify suitable training programmes for your upskilling needs.

30. Some of you have already done so, and we are seeing promising early results. Some of you may still be mulling over it. That is understandable because substantive upskilling requires commitment. I hope the structural moves today that we are making will give you greater assurance and support as you take the next step.

Conclusion

31. If all of us, individuals, industry and institutions, can do this well, then we are on our way to making sure that SkillsFuture will be a key pillar in our social compact. That will allow us to avoid many of the issues that other countries are grappling with - how to keep society cohesive, where anybody can believe and have the support to realise their dreams, and where the benefits of globalisation and trade will not just benefit a segment which will get the most from it - while leaving the rest behind. In Singapore, we will share the fruits of our labour with everyone. We will reinvest the gains that we have made as a country with everyone. The best employment insurance is a competitive workforce that allows our people a sense of dignity and pride that our people can take care of themselves, and to keep realising their dreams by upskilling themselves.

32. The Government cannot do this alone. We will need the help of our institutions, industries, and individuals to work together as Team Singapore. By doing so, we will have a stronger Singapore and a more competitive workforce.

33. On that note, thank you very much to our corporate partners for being here, and we look forward to working closely with you.