Singapore to boost mid-career support, make training ‘more accessible’
Sharon See
TRAINING will be made “more accessible” for working adults with competing commitments, while mid-career workers will get more targeted support such as SkillsFuture Credit top-ups, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Tuesday (Apr 18).
These ideas have emerged from the Forward Singapore exercise, with details to come “in due course”, he said on the second day of the debate on President Halimah Yacob’s address at the opening of Parliament.
Helping workers stay relevant and competitive is one of several approaches to “keep our Singapore meritocracy system resilient and sustainable” in the face of potential pitfalls, said Chan.
While the government will invest in Singaporeans “throughout life”, what is also needed is the partnership of industry, institutions and individuals, he added.
“Industries cannot wait passively for the ‘perfect worker’ to be developed for them,” he said. They must actively shape students’ interests and skillsets, and support workers in upskilling continually.
Institutes of higher learning will continue to enhance their offerings, such as work-study programmes and stackable modules suitable for mid-career Singaporeans. However, Singaporeans themselves must have a “growth mindset and passion for lifelong learning” to make full use of these opportunities.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Earlier in the debate, labour MP Patrick Tay suggested an industry-led accreditation of career coaches and counsellors, and letting SkillsFuture credits be used to engage such coaches.
In an increasingly complex employment landscape, such guidance is becoming “more of a necessity than a luxury”, he said. Yet, these individualised services tend to be available only to high-potential employees, or the retrenched or unemployed.
“The advice and guidance rendered by the career coach would complement what SkillsFuture, in its existing form, already offers,” Tay said. “It may even reduce or resolve the psychological barriers to training and assure all Singaporeans that they have equal chances and opportunities at all stages to develop their skills.”
SEE ALSO
Lifelong learning is one of the ways that Singapore can tackle potential problems with meritocracy, which Chan laid out in response to President Halimah’s call for a “broader meritocracy”.
Others include valuing diverse abilities by continuing to move away from “single, narrow and static” metrics of evaluation, and creating more diverse education pathways.
“Heart” and “hand” work – sectors such as special education and essential services, for instance – must be fairly rewarded and remunerated, in a way that is commensurate with “head” work.
Chan noted that this may translate to higher costs for some services – which society must be willing to accept. “Otherwise, no matter how much we broaden the dimensions of merit in our school system, none of it will ultimately work because it does not translate to tangible differences in earnings and at the workplace.”
Chan also said society must “do more for those with less, to uplift the less privileged”, warning against degenerating into “a system where everyone thinks they deserve more relative to others”. This is a major challenge that could cause Singapore to lose its social cohesion to the “politics of envy”, he added.
“Our measure of success as a society is not how many people we can help because they are unable to keep up, but how few people we need to help because we have enabled them to thrive,” he said.
“A sustainable and resilient meritocracy is one where the largest number of people are enabled to achieve and contribute, to take care of the fewest number possible who are unable to achieve as much.”
Finally, the right values must be imbued in Singaporeans from young, so they will be willing to give back to society and create more opportunities for others, he said. “I look forward to the day when our society defines success not just by one’s achievements, but more importantly by one’s contributions.”
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
