A Collaboration to Transform the CET Sector
Dr Gog Soon Joo
Institute for Adult Learning (IAL)
Work and Professional Development Opportunities Ahead
A more complex world needs multi-disciplinary
professionals to build a future proof CET sector
The development of TAEPCM is only a
starting point.
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Imminent Changes are Taking Place
Political Forces
Economic Forces
Social Forces
Technological Forces
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Political Forces: Singapore at her Turning Point
“Re-balancing the social impact and
roles to be played by the individuals,
the community and the Government”
CET now needs to play a bigger role in
supporting the strategic thrusts
Do more to give every
citizen a fair share in
nation’s success - Raise
incomes and wealth of the
low-income Singaporean
Increase
social safety
nets
Do more to keep paths
upwards open to all- To
keep our society MOBILE
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Political Forces: A More Inclusive Society with Pursuit of Excellence
Demand for Quality
Job & Social Mobility
 Continue to have a strong
emphasis in work and
rewarding individuals
who work
 Jobs and more
specifically GOOD JOBS
will be important to
support the strategic
thrusts and to meeting
the needs of
Singaporeans where
multiple pathways for
career and training
progress are created
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Political Forces: A More Inclusive Society with Pursuit of Excellence
Demand for Quality
Job & Social Mobility
Demand for
Compassionate
Meritocracy
Demand for
Productivity Drive
 Meritocracy will gain
importance and
cultivated. People who
succeed under the
system, must feel the
duty to contribute to the
society
 Singaporean will remain
as core even with
increase in population
growth. The need to
restructure our economy
to reduce reliance on
labour and enhancing
productivity
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Political Forces: A More Inclusive Society with Pursuit of Excellence
Demand for Quality
Job & Social Mobility
Demand for
Compassionate
Meritocracy
Demand for
Productivity Drive
Demand for
Individual Funding
 Education and training as
merit good which provide
positive externalities and
social benefits will likely
to continue
 Increasing need to
provide individual-based
funding to support
special attention
segments of workforce
To enhance individuals’
employability by
supporting Lifelong
Learning
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Political Forces: A More Inclusive Society with Pursuit of Excellence
Demand for Quality
Job & Social Mobility
Demand for
Compassionate
Meritocracy
Demand for
Productivity Drive
 Tripartism is our
competitive advantage
and will remain as key
cornerstone to manage
industrial relations
Demand for
Individual Funding
Tripartism remains as
cornerstone to manage
industrial relationship
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Economic Forces: Demand for Complex Skills and Short Lead Time to
Build Competitive Advantage Rapidly
Knowledge economy –
demand for creation of
innovative goods and
services
Demand production of
high value goods and
services
Market becomes
volatile and shortening
of business cycles
Demand higher level of
Demand more rapid
business sophistication in pace of adjustments to
all sectors
respond
Demand for
complex skills
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Economic Forces: Demand for Complex Skills and Short Lead Time to
Build Competitive Advantage Rapidly
The need for more firms
to enter global market
Products & Services
Innovation is key
Increasing demand for inclusive
value chain for lead-firms to bring
up the productivity & innovation
of SMEs in the value chain
Skills strategies become critical part of
business strategies
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Social Forces: Effects of Globalisation are Increasing Prominent in
Driving the Social Changes in Singapore
Income
Disparity !
Gini coefficient
increased from 43.4
in 2000 to 45.2 in
2011
Average Monthly Household Income from Work Per
Household Member (including CPF)
Year
2000
2005
2011
Lowest 10%
$315
$297
$422
Highest 10%
$5,801
$7,004
$10,543
Ratio of Top 10% over
Lowest 10%
18.4
23.6
25.0
Pursuit to be “global city” and to keep cost affordable – the need for flexible labour
market (develop local core while continue to attract foreign talent)
Challenging for good governance to develop and implement coherence policies for all
workforce segments
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Social Forces: Effects of Globalisation are Increasing Prominent in
Driving the Social Changes in Singapore
Aging
Population
& Low Fertility Rate
65 yrs
Aged 65 population will
increase from the current
9.3% to 19% by 2030.
Aged 50 workforce
increased increase from the
20% in 2002 to 31% in 2012.
Source: MTI, “The Elderly in Singapore, 2011”
Individuals will stay in the workforce
longer with multiple careers, include
non-wage career
 Building a culture of lifelong learning
becomes essential to improve
employability and help Singaporeans
secure better jobs
 Organisations have to create more
diversity and flexibility in their provision
of career paths and to take advantage of
the wealth of experience that an aging
workforce can offer
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Social Forces: Effects of Globalisation are Increasing Prominent in
Driving the Social Changes in Singapore
Amplification
of Freelancers
Adecco predicts that rate of growth
in contingent work will be 2 to 4
times the growth rate of traditional
workforce and will eventually make
up of 25% of the global workforce
Sources:
 The rise of the New Contract Worker, Harvard
Business Review, 7 September 2012
 The Singapore Workforce, 2012, Ministry of
Manpower
In Singapore
9.5% on
contract
basis
10% on
part-time
basis
Changing nature of work – new skills
set for the contingent workforce to
mitigate employment & income risk
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Social Forces: Effects of Globalisation are Increasing Prominent in
Driving the Social Changes in Singapore
Sustainable Job
Growth for More
Educated Workforce?
Degree holders forming residing
labour force increased from 19% in
2002 to 29% in 2012
Hollowing out of middle-skilled jobs
Graduates us facing joblessness or the
prospect of having to take on lowskilled jobs
60%
50%
40%
Change in
30%
Employment
20%
Share in
Singapore (1999 - 10%
2009)
0%
-10%
Low-skilled
High-skilled
Middle-skilled
Source: MTI, 2011
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Technological Forces: New Challenges & Opportunities
Rise of
smart
machines
Work are more
sophisticated and
may require multidisciplinary skills to
add-value
Need to build
specialisation to
differentiate from others
(to achieve mastery) to
stay employable
Prevalence
of New
Media
Lines between work,
private lives and
learning are getting
blurred
Re-define workplace
and learning
More technology
savvy generations
Emergence
of Cloud
Computing
Computing power to computing
infrastructure, applications and
collaborative services can be
delivered to end users whenever
and wherever one needs it
Mitigation of physical space
shortages, promote higher flexibility
in work arrangement and bring
talents together by transcending
geographical constraints
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does It Mean?
These forces do
converge, reinforce
and interact with
one another
What Does It Mean?
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does it Mean to Workforce Development Professional?
To promote essential
skills including new
media skills to enhance
their employability and
mobility
Strengthen
career guidance
and consulting
framework
To promote “e”/
mobile/ blended
learning &
workplace learning
To examine the eco-system
by identifying the levers of
change to transform the low
skills equilibrium sectors
WFD personnel to be equipped with
knowledge and skills in labour relations ,
labour economics, outcome evaluation,
human resource principles, procedures &
etc to design sound policy initiatives
Review and explore how
best to promote, recognise
and validate non- formal
workplace learning for skills
acquisitions
To review the current
TAE ecosystem to better
support both TAE
professionals and their
employers
More efficient use of
funds at specific
workforce segments
need to be studied
more carefully
Strengthen the
support of in-house
training to protect
proprietary expertise
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does It Mean to Workforce Development Professional?
Speed is essence in picking up new complex skills to meet fast changing
skills demand. Our policy and mechanism must be able to:
Support and expedite
the roll out of
programmes, balancing
the need to safeguard
quality to keep pace
with the change
Further enhance the
WSQ developmental
and review approach
and process to be
more responsive
Allow more flexible
programme design and
qualifications packaging
to meet interdisciplinary
skills requirements of
future work
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does It Mean to Training Management Professional?
To have capability
to provide
relevant
programmes to
equip the local
workforce to have
the capacity to
compete at the
international
levels
Able to develop
and expand
capability in onestop consultation
services
TM needs to re-strategise on their
business development approach to
better outreach to new potential
direct individual buyers
Ability to develop new business
model for “e”, “mobile”,
“blended” and alternative learning
Able to tap on existing new media
and cloud infrastructure/ resources:
 Learning Management System
 Learning Analytics
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does It Mean to HRD Professional?
Able to re-look into the design and
cultivation of workplace culture,
set-up and environment to
facilitate and support workplace
collaboration and learning and to
complement classroom training
They should also be able to lead or
contribute quickly to the:
 process re-engineering and jobredesign activities as the
organisations respond to
economic forces and to support
business performance and
productivity
 Skills utilisation at workplace
 Longer term manpower/skills
planning
 Total business-learning solution
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does It Mean to Adult Educator?
Master new media skills to build own personal
branding and find collaborators in projects,
participate in professional bodies and networks
Be a true expert in his / her fields and be able
to offer more than what the new media could
offer
Possess pedagogical approaches/ skills
 to customise courses according to learning
needs of different workforce segments
 Develop “e”, “mobile” and “blended learning”
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What Does It Mean to Adult Educator?
Should help build their own professional
bodies or internal networks, transforming
them to be a place where true expertise could
be horned and shared, and aiding one
another in their professional development
(compassionate meritocracy)
Singapore Association of
Pharmaceutical Industries
Domain expertise will become crucial and likely more
subject matter experts (SME) will play the role of AE.
It is important for them to be effective AE and to
assist them better in their transition to take on the
new or additional role.
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
What’s Next?
A 5-Year Collaboration Plan
in the Making
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
TAE Skills Strategies [TAES2]
Phase 3: Execute Demonstration
Projects
Phase 2: Validation & Establish
Agreements
Phase 1: Strategic Intelligence
Desktop
Research
Systematic investigations of
the sector with a core focus
on the skills management in
TAE community, with
linkages to other factors
within CET sector
Part one report will be released in
Nov 2013 by TAE MSTC
Validation of the findings
from phase one via skills
survey, leading to agreed
priorities to be addressed,
and concrete intervention
strategies to be developed
Between middle of 2014 to
2018, a series of
“Demonstration Projects”
under the “Learning and
Performance Transformation”
(LPT) umbrella will take place
Monitor and Measure the
Planned Impact Outcomes
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector
Achieving Outcomes at Three Levels
Government
Level
Firm Level
Individual
Level
 Right skills to respond to the
needs of the labour market
 Stimulate the growth of highskilled and high value-added jobs
 Ensure full utilisation of
existing skills
 Future proofing firm’s
performance
Skill-build towards the future to
improve the employability of the
CET professionals
A Collaboration to Transform the CET sector