Speech by Minister for Education, Mr Chan Chun Sing at the SkillsFuture Fellowships and SkillsFuture Employer Awards

President Halimah Yacob
Colleagues
Award Recipients
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

1.A very good afternoon to everyone. Today, we are here once again at the SkillsFuture Fellowships and SkillsFuture Employer Awards Ceremony. This is our sixth run of the annual event, and after two years of split venues and hybrid gatherings, it is good to see everyone together once again. My heartiest congratulations to all the Award recipients.

2.I would also like to extend my thanks to Mdm President for gracing the ceremony and her unwavering support as Patron of the Awards.

Reskilling and Upskilling as a Whole-Of-Society Effort

3.I have spoken on several occasions about the importance of lifelong learning. Upskilling and reskilling are increasingly not an option but a necessity for individuals and enterprises to thrive. Singaporeans need to build up the skills and capabilities they need to succeed over multiple careers, throughout their working lives.

4.This requires a whole-of-society effort from enterprises, individuals, government agencies, industry partners, and our educational institutions and training providers.

The Role of Enterprises in Workforce Development

5.Let me begin with the role that companies can play in promoting and embracing lifelong learning. In an uncertain and volatile economic crisis, our employers must continue to invest in the training of our workers.

1. To remain competitive, we cannot depend on the magnitude of our resources, but instead the speed of our evolution and the transformation of our businesses.
2. Rather than only seeking to hire individuals from the market to plug skills gaps, companies can also invest in training their existing pool of workers. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a few employers who shared their experiences on this with me, and I posed a question: How do employers look for the "perfect employee" who can meet all their skills needs? In truth, there is no "perfect employee" who has all the required skills. They shared that instead, we should work with every employee to upgrade their skills and train them. One of them even remarked that the only employees who met all their skill needs were their former employees.
3. The other thing we need employers to understand is this: notwithstanding the tough competition, we cannot adopt a zero-sum mindset. If each and everyone of us only trained for our own needs, whilst fearing the loss of skilled employees to others, we would be doing ourselves a huge disservice as a nation. Instead, every time a company commits to training its worker, it is doing it for themselves, it is doing it for the economy. And when we do this collectively, we all benefit much more than our individual effort.
4. The company award recipients today will testify to the benefits of investing in training their employees, e.g., greater levels of engagement and higher retention rates, and of course more skilled employees. Targeted skills acquisition can also enable new processes and products, leading to increased productivity and higher revenue.

6.The willingness to train employees must also be backed by an evolution of HR processes and practices to (i) create enabling conditions for training and (ii) to better recognise the skills gained.

1. Many employers already sponsor employees to go for training during work hours. Beyond this, progressive employers are also providing flexi-work arrangements such as training leave and time-off to support employees who are pursuing skills upgrading outside of work. For mid-career workers with many work and personal commitments, these arrangements make a real difference.
2. The adoption of workplace learning is a key enabler. Since 2018, about 1,500 companies have partnered the National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning (NACE), to implement structured training programmes and develop a stronger learning culture. 70% of these companies are SMEs. Having picked up new skills, we hope to see employers provide opportunities for workers to apply them, to innovate on the job, take on new tasks, and even expanded job roles.

7.This year, SSG has refreshed the SkillsFuture Employer Awards to recognise companies who contribute to skills development in different ways. Some have put in place progressive HR practices to recognise the skills of their employees. Others contributed towards the development of talent pipeline for the wider industry.

1. Today, 19 companies will receive the Gold awards and 9 will receive the Silver awards.
2. 6 companies are repeat awardees under the new system. I would like to commend you for your continued efforts in skills development. But beyond this, our HR practices also have to evolve - we need to sharpen the articulation of the new skills sets required by industries. Without this, we will not be able to aggregate the skills demand and activate supply. We cannot only use qualifications like degrees or diplomas thinking they will adequately signal the types of skillsets required in industries. I'm happy to see that more companies are working with their HR to fine-tune specific skills sets that they require.

8.One of the Gold award recipients is Sembcorp Solar Singapore. The company adopts workforce development as a key strategy in ensuring long-term growth.

1. Employees can access Sembcorp Academy, an in-house learning platform with various curriculum to support employees to learn and upskill anytime and anywhere. Through the courses, employees can gain holistic and cross-functional knowledge to excel in their roles.
2. The company also supports its employees in gaining international exposure through deployments to other markets, facilitating knowledge exchange that could benefit clean energy projects in Singapore.
3. Sembcorp Solar Singapore is also building its pool of professionals in areas such as engineering, operations, and Health, Safety, Security and Environment, in the renewable energy space. It partners some of our Institutes of Higher Learning to develop specialised learning facilities and certified curriculum to equip students and mid-career professionals with the relevant skillsets for our emerging clean energy sector.

9.A Silver award recipient today is Motor Edgevantage that views business and skills transformation as a key part of their company strategy.

1. Despite being a small company in the automotive repair industry, their efforts in building workplace capabilities and skills of their employees, are indeed commendable.
2. The company adopts a skill-based approach to hiring and promoting employees, with structured human capital development to ensure that skills are constantly updated and relevant.
3. Motor Edgevantage taps on the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit to upskill employees locally, and sends about 10 employees for specialised training both locally and overseas each year.
4. To continue tapping on the expertise of older workers, they have also redesigned their work scopes. Well done to Motor Edgevantage, for showing that many other SMEs can do the same as well.

The Role of Individuals in Lifelong Learning

10.SkillsFuture is not only about employers upskilling their workforce. It is also about individuals having the curiosity to learn, being self-directed in their learning, planning their own career path and upskilling journey, and achieving skills mastery in their chosen fields. These traits enable us to be our best at our work and prepare us for change amidst the uncertainties

11.Today, we celebrate the efforts of Singaporeans who not only embraced the spirit of SkillsFuture and lifelong learning themselves, but also supported others to do so.

12.61-year young Christine Soo Mee Ling is one of the individuals who will be receiving the SkillsFuture Fellowship today.

1. In 2004, Christine switched from journalism to pursue her passion as a childcare educator.
2. She has never looked back since, dedicating almost 20 years of her life to the early childhood sector.
3. She was appointed as an ECDA fellow for her contributions to the early childhood development sector. These include
   1. Supporting the development of the early childhood skills map
   2. Strengthening teaching practices to guide teachers, and
   3. Reviewing infant and preschool curriculum to ensure holistic education development of our young children.
4. She is now grooming the next generation of early childhood care and education professionals, mentoring students, as well as developing and delivering curriculum.

13.Another individual is Mr Firdaus Bin Adris whose drive and determination in pursuing skills mastery has been exemplary and a key encouragement to his colleagues.

1. After National Service, he joined a traineeship programme as a trainee technician in the aviation sector, and worked hard to prove himself.
2. Firdaus actively sought training opportunities to augment his skills and sought opportunities to work overseas, stepping out of his comfort zone and braving cultural differences.
3. Knowing the challenges faced by fresh graduates when entering the workforce, Firdaus proactively mentors new colleagues and helps them find their paths.
4. Having been in the aviation sector for almost two decades, he has progressed to a senior position overseeing global operations. He is now a Global Operations Manager at Aero Inspection Private Limited
5. Firdaus shares that his next goal is to attain a degree.

14.I hope Christine and Firdaus' experiences will inspire all of us to embrace lifelong learning and employability, acquire new skills, achieve mastery in our own field, and fulfil our aspirations. But most importantly, to use our skills and gifts to contribute something to society and uplift fellow Singaporeans.

The Role of Government and Industry Partners

15.In this whole-of-society effort, the Government can play a part in helping different stakeholders understand the changing skills needs. To that end, SSG is working with workforce analytics firms to put together the latest information drawn from job portals and talent networks to identify new and emerging skills relevant for Singaporeans.

16.The Skills Demand for Future Economy Report is a result of this continued research and data analytics effort. We launched the inaugural Skills Demand for Future Economy Report this time last year. Today, we will release the second edition of this report.

17.The report signposts where the growth opportunities are and seeks to direct individuals to the relevant training programmes and funding available, empowering them to take charge of their own skills journey.

18.The second edition continues to focus on three growth economies - digital economy, green economy, and care economy, going deeper into the demand growth and transferability of associated skills.

1. Through the lens of Industry 4.0, the report examines how digital, green and care skills come into play in the advanced manufacturing sector where we are already seeing job content changing and new skills being demanded for both technology and non-technology roles.
2. Part of the report also targets the broad middle tier of mid-career workers in their 40s and 50s. We are keen to support them in job switches within the same sector or across sectors by highlighting possible upskilling pathways and available resources. For example, they could:
   1. Take advantage of priority skills to gain entry into growth jobs in the three economies;
   2. Reskill to take on opportunities in growth roles that have good adjacencies to their current role; or
   3. Upskill to stay relevant in their current role.

19.SSG will continue to partner other sector agencies, Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) and appointed Skills Development Partners (SDPs) to identify and aggregate skills demands for different industry sectors. These partnerships are key towards multiplying our reach in engaging the Small and Medium Enterprises on their skills needs.

20.Concurrently, SSG is working with the Institutes of Higher Learning and private training providers to launch new quality courses to address the skills needs in these high growth areas. Examples include the SkillsFuture Series that is a curated list of short, industry-relevant training programmes focusing on emerging skills.

Conclusion

21.In conclusion, for us to make this transformation, we as individuals need to adopt a new mindset. We also need industry partners to similarly adopt a new mindset, to work on upgrading the specific skillsets that Singapore requires in a targeted and timely manner. The Government will do what we can to help our companies and citizens remain competitive and relevant. If we can do this together --redesign curricula, redesign the way we afford our adult learners the choices and agency to pick up new skills at their own time, at their own pace, then we can collectively ensure that we remain competitive as an economy and as individuals.

22.On that note, I wish you all the very best. I would also like to thank our partners who have helped to make this event possible. To the companies and individuals here today who have shared their stories with us - your positive experiences show that what you have achieved can be replicated across our country to benefit many more industries, and many more people.

23.Thank you.

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