SIM undergoes rebranding to reflect new ‘skills-based era’ of lifelong learning

WHEN Seah Chin Siong first became the chief executive officer of the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) back in 2019, he described himself as a “firm believer and advocate” of lifelong learning and people development.

Three years into the job, those words continue to guide him as he oversees a major rebranding exercise at SIM, one that reflects a new “industry-focused and skills-based era” of lifelong learning for an organisation that was founded nearly 6 decades ago.

“I would like to call ourselves a lifelong learning institute, rather than one that’s just for private education,” he told The Business Times in a recent interview at his office at the SIM campus along Clementi Road. “People development is something that’s always been close to my heart. It’s about how to make everyone the best - not the best in the world, but the best that he or she can be in life.”

The rebranding, as well as a new logo, will be officially announced on Wednesday (Jul 20) at a hybrid event for SIM’s internal stakeholders held at the Clementi campus.

Seah’s hope is that the new identity - with the tagline “Learn for life, thrive for life” - will resonate with learners of all ages, and encourage and inspire them to embrace lifelong learning throughout their different life stages.

By that definition, he means building a long and meaningful relationship with people from the time they step through SIM’s doors, which could be when they are in their late-teens if they enroll in a higher education programme at one of SIM Global Education’s 11 overseas university partners.

“Even after they graduate and find work, we continue to offer them professional development programmes, to give them the skills to help build a progressive career,” said the 57-year-old Seah, who joined SIM after spending 7 years at gaming operator Singapore Pools, with the last 4 of those as its CEO.

Besides Global Education, SIM’s other core business entity is the SIM Academy, which focuses on professional development and enterprise solutions for career transition and advancement, as well as coming up with customised and integrated learning solutions for companies.

While SIM will continue to strengthen its offerings in Global Education, Seah noted that providing enterprise solutions is “where the growth is” for SIM in the coming years.

“We are into the second year of our enterprise business, and we are engaging with several corporates, including government agencies, to design an enterprise curriculum that’s tailored to their needs and to deliver it. In my view, this is such an untapped space,” he said.

The hope is that workers continue to be relevant in their respective companies and sectors, and constantly upgrade themselves with the latest skills, he added.

“Learning and work cannot be kept separate. They have to happen at the same time,” said Seah. “These are 2 bookends - the corporate learning environment, and the universities. In between, we want to help everyone when it comes to lifelong learning.”

Whenever Seah meets business leaders, whether they are from multinationals or the smaller firms, he does his best to encourage them to have a hard look at their approach to staff training, and to not see it as just another type of employee benefit or a budget that needs to be spent.

“There can be a more deliberate way of building up the workforce, so that, hopefully, every time an employer needs better talent, they don’t have to keep recruiting and then decide what to do about their existing staff,” he said.

“The World Economic Forum says that 50 per cent of people have to be retrained by 2025, but most companies are not thinking about how to do that. We don’t want to see people retrenched because of a skills mismatch. Let’s keep them employed, and more than that, let’s make them perform better.”

His message to CEOs is to ensure that learning and development be a strategic part of their organisation, such that it becomes a competitive edge. “Because, all things being equal, the fact is that the company with the better talent will win,” he said.