The 'Smart' in Smart Nation is also about being more human
IN his 2017 National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong underlined Singapore's vision to be a Smart Nation. The Smart Nation masterplan favourably positions the country economically and socially for the future, where being "smart" defines most, if not all, aspects of our life from the home to the workplace.
What does it take for the workforce, businesses and citizens to thrive in a Smart Nation? Is there a risk that the implementation of smart technologies will outpace the population's ability to learn and adapt?
With more smart projects identified across different domains, it is expected that the country's workforce landscape will shift. The development and implementation of smart projects will require more talent such as the likes of engineers, programmers, data analysts and technicians. The imperative to build deep skills in programming, coding, computational thinking, engineering, software development, data science or machine learning is evident. The government is encouraging students to take up engineering and computer science. Skills Future and Professional Conversion Programmes also encourage technical skills development and career conversions for such roles.
Yet, for businesses to be smart and drive a competitive edge requires more than technical know-how and new technologies. Technologies must be augmented by behavioural insights and the understanding of patterns that drive consumer or societal behaviour. Particularly, behavioural economics will become a growing resource as businesses seek to understand biases or the impact of social norms on consumer behaviour.
While technologies such as robots and artificial intelligence can enable improved productivity through automation, human capabilities such as empathy, connectivity and creativity will be needed to make sense of data and information to extract insights and develop solutions and drive innovation.
Notwithstanding this, increased automation is expected to transform the future of work. The World Economic Forum estimates that 5.1 million jobs across 14 major economies will be displaced by 2020.
Displacement of labour is hardly new as mechanisation has been reshaping work since the Industrial Revolution. What is different in the smart economy is the unprecedented impact of technologies on both blue and white-collar jobs, and the speed of potential displacement.
At the same time, the smart economy is set to grow new businesses, generate new jobs and possibly even create new sectors. For example, the advent of digital apps has fuelled the rise of the sharing economy along with new economic and job opportunities, such as private car-for-hire drivers, food or grocery delivery service providers, and micro-retailers.
The idea of performing "gigs" on a contractor or freelance basis will also become more commonplace as the notion of having a "job for life" becomes outmoded. Catalysed by technological enablement, jobs could well be unbundled into tasks that are skills and knowledge-based, and as businesses take a modular approach to work, workers will have "roles", not "jobs"".
In such a reshaped job economy, education qualifications and grades may become less reliable predictors of success than human qualities such as perseverance to see things through, openness to collaborate, and the ability to energise a diverse team.
Having said that, education is important insofar that learning must never stop.
It is said that 50 per cent of what university students learn in their first year will be outdated by the third year of their study. Perhaps then the formal education years should focus on shaping the mindsets of continual learning, embracing change and creative problem-solving.
Formal education institutes can also take a more "bite-size" modular approach to learning, and emphasise the application of skills rather than acquisition of knowledge. Continuing education centres or adult learning institutes should forge stronger partnerships with businesses to offer learning scenarios relevant to current and pressing business issues.
At the workplace, organisations will need to evolve their learning strategies and provide regular, accessible, practical and applicable skills development. Such skills development must be tied to specific talent shortages and needs of the businesses.
Organisations and individuals can further tap technology to enable lifelong learning. E-learning, massive open online courses, podcasts or micro-learning courses have already liberalised access to abundant learning resources. But technology can do more than allow ease of access. It is also a means to connect learners with experts, coaches and mentors to bring learning to life.
Business networking powered by technology can also be a learning enabler. LinkedIn, for example, has "democratised" the workforce, giving opportunities for networking across borders, companies and job levels. These business networks are opportunities to learn informally from peers.
At an individual level, from youth to retirees, continual learning to adapt to the smart-enabled living environment is essential so as to consume and leverage technology effectively, safely and responsibly.
As John B Horrigan said in his article titled Lifelong Learning and Technology, it is when people learn for "personal life enrichment" that they will seek out more opportunities for self-directed learning and voluntarily deepen their knowledge and skills, with or without external financial support.
As the world becomes increasingly connected and competitive, Singapore's vision of being a Smart Nation must be more than an aspiration. The country's success will rest on our collective ability to shift our mindsets, embrace lifelong learning and prepare for the future of work.
