Singapore strives to improve skills training for workforce

This was highlighted by Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, who said trade associations and chambers and professional bodies should play a bigger role in driving skills development.

He said SkillsFuture Singapore has plans to partner these organisations to identify skills that are in demand and to develop skills-based career pathways. One of these plans is a tie-up between the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Computer Society and SGTech, a tech trade association.

Besides this strategy, other areas to be improved are in adult learning, partnerships between institutes of higher learning and industry, and companies’ approaches towards building Singapore’s talent pool.

Chan noted that many companies want to train their workers but do not know how to articulate this need. This is where the National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning (Nace), which is led by Nanyang Polytechnic, comes in to strengthen support structures for workplace learning.

“In a short span of four years, Nace has helped about 1,500 local companies implement structured training programmes and develop a stronger learning culture. I am glad to hear that of these, about 70% are local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),” he said.

Last year, Nace also launched the National Workplace Learning Certification scheme, he added. It recognises progressive organisations that have structures and processes in place for good training practices at the workplace.

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Chan was speaking at the launch of the inaugural Workplace Learning Conference organised by Singapore’s five polytechnics, the Institute of Technical Education, the Institute for Adult Learning and the Singapore Institute of Technology.