Future of work relies on talent networks and continuous learning

In addition to Singapore’s local-foreign workforce composition, a bigger challenge in work today is the “depth and wideness of talent network a company or country can command, which determines the speed at which it will evolve to outrun the competition,” said Chan Chun Sing, Singapore’s Minister of Education.

Speaking at a Singapore Institute of Management event, he explained that the nature of work is no longer localised, particularly for high value-added work.

“The real matrix of success for Singapore is…how many good opportunities we can create for Singaporeans in Singapore and beyond through our ability to combine our talents with those from around the world,” he said.

To remain competitive, Singapore must be able to “refresh the entire workforce at scale and speed, which will require a stretch goal of having 20% to 30% of our people learning something new every year”.

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He continued, “If we only depend on the flow of 30,000 to 40,000 graduates from our education system, we are only renewing our workforce at a rate of 1% to 2% per year.”

For industry transformation to occur, Chan suggested that institutions should work with industries to provide workers with precise, just-in-time training modules to enable industry transformation to take place.