How Singapore can get a head start for the future of work

Ecosystem stakeholders must play their part to prepare the workforce for the future as new roles emerge from industry convergence.

With Singapore’s limited natural resources and relatively small population, it is critical for the nation to continually anticipate the next disruption and adapt to it. Investing the necessary capital and developing the right talent required for the next phase of growth are, therefore, imperatives for the government, businesses and other industry stakeholders, including educational institutions.

The government’s Skills Demand for the Future Economy 2022 report noted that the digital, green and care economies are key priorities for Singapore.¹

Working toward the ideal future state

According to the Ministry of Manpower’s Job Vacancies 2021 report, the proportion of job vacancies that were unfilled for six months or more increased from 27% in 2020 to 35% in 2021.² The unfilled positions were not due to a lack of academic qualifications among Singaporeans, but the lack of candidates with relevant industry skills or work experience. This indicates that there is a gap between the concepts, lessons and skills learned in institutes of higher learning (IHLs) and the skills in demand at the workplace.

To support growth in the emerging sectors with a ready supply of talent, skills matching by bringing together the right combination of jobs and skills is imperative. The ideal scenario is an ecosystem where there is harmonization of the supply of skills and the requirements of employers. On the supply side, there are three ways to source individuals with the appropriate skills: IHLs, lifelong learning training programs and immigration from other countries. On the demand side, corporates, the government and startups are the largest employers.

For a start, the government can define and map the required skills and skill-based pathways for the industries and industry clusters. It can also orchestrate the alignment between industries and IHLs through grants and capacity- and capability-building initiatives. IHLs need to foster stronger ties with industry players so that their curricula are flexible and meet industry requirements. The higher-education sector can be the node to attract and retain traditional learners, adult learners as well as businesses. This can be done by positioning itself as the “industry knowledge services” sector and providing ample opportunities to deliver immersive industry experiences through its curricula.

For example, the government has appointed Nanyang Polytechnic’s (NYP) School of Engineering to lead the Jobs-Skills Integrator pilot program for the precision engineering (PE) sector. In this role, NYP will engage with PE companies to understand their skill needs and advise on industry-relevant training programs. NYP will also work with employment agencies and other training providers to enhance placement support and training for the sector. Together, these efforts will not only help the sector meet emerging skill requirements, but also support PE workers in career development and connect jobseekers with employment agencies and potential PE employers.

On the demand side, employers need to implement a skills-based approach in talent acquisition and development. Industry players can establish tried-and-true workplace learning practices and co-create curricula with IHLs to foster continuous learning on the job. Additionally, industry players should participate in government-run pilot projects and sandboxes so as to have a voice in government policymaking.

JTMs are periodically updated to reflect emerging areas of work for the future economy. They are useful compasses for employers to identify opportunities to transform jobs and skills for the future of work. Governments can further enhance these plans to feature mapping of possible skills-based pathways within new industry clusters and possible lateral movements to other industry clusters. The addition of skill mapping will enable employers to harness available talents who bring in cross-industry experiences and perspectives to drive change and add value to the organization.

Take an ecosystem approach to close gaps

The government can set the policies and standards as well as mobilize IHLs and industry players to do their part. However, other stakeholders in the nation’s education and manpower strategy must also recognize their roles in aligning with the national economic agenda.

The stakeholders and their respective priorities include the following.

Government

1. The government must adopt dynamic workforce planning, which requires a close study of local workforce needs and draws upon regional and global trends to anticipate industry needs accordingly. It is necessary to take a longer-term view of capacity and capability needs, identify gaps and create strategies to access the required skills.
2. The government can facilitate the scaling up of digital capabilities by creating a common framework to engage IHLs and employers so that they are aligned and updated on industry demands. Policymakers need to create a framework for digital learning standards that strikes a balance between quality and flexibility.
3. The government seeks to update all ITMs and enhance the role of JTMs by 2025. The revised ITMs would need to focus on addressing industry convergence and building the necessary infrastructure and capabilities to support digital services. Correspondingly, JTMs should reflect the possible skills-based pathways within new industry clusters and possible lateral movements across clusters.

IHLs

1. IHLs must focus on designing and delivering curricula that are relevant to industries and cover practical applications. They can combine the following course features: internships, capstone projects and part-work, part-study arrangements.
   
   Several global models can be applicable to Singapore. For instance, the Netherlands’ Maastricht University, featured in the QS World University Rankings 2023 list of top universities worldwide, has a part-work, part-study format. Students spend half of their time in class and the rest at a local business or institute where they are placed in challenging real-life work situations.
   
   Similarly, EHL, a leading university in Switzerland, has a program that allows students to operate a multisensory restaurant that seeks to construct experiences associated with guest emotions. The focus is on activating the customer’s entire sensory spectrum through verbal and non-verbal communication. Students enrolled in the program are taught to create such an experience for the client through a high level of empathy and a broad range of soft skills. This also allows students to gain awareness of the strategic and operational approaches in running a business. Further, the university’s Innovation Village houses a business incubator and a food lab to provide students with hands-on experience.
   
   
2. IHLs have traditionally been knowledge creators with continuous, multi-year structured courses in a group setting. In this new age, they will have to reimagine content delivery and curate “music playlists” where individuals can opt for a set course “playlist” or design entirely personalized, modular ones that are self-directed. Further, regulators should give providers the autonomy to offer pilot courses in nascent fields of study where the academic consensus is still being formed.

Located in the US, the Kellogg School of Management offers an MBA that allows students to choose from more than 200 courses and gives them the option to skip core courses and focus on electives that match their career goals. This allows learners to make their learning as broad or focused as they desire to support a variety of career pathways. 

Industry and employers 

1. Emerging industries and trade associations can proactively participate in content creation by co-creating “corporate lab” curricula with vocational institutions. In these collaborations, they co-create the curricula of tomorrow and produce new products and services for tomorrow’s markets.
2. To fully leverage available talent, companies should create an effective framework for skill-based hiring practices. They could hire and cross-skill or upskill individuals with relevant industry experience and skill sets, but at a lower proficiency. Employers should build workplace capabilities with the help of IHLs, such as the National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning, and explore collaborations with other industry players to better sustain the momentum of skill development for employees.
3. Employers should create compelling, tailored employee experiences that treat every worker as a unique individual, with structured career paths to help workers progress and fulfill their career ambitions. Career paths should be dynamically designed to cater to varying employee needs. They should also have well-defined short- and long-term goals that can be tracked in a timely and systematic manner.
4. Digitization will lead to the formation of industry clusters that will drive greater value for the economy. To leverage the blurring of boundaries between industries, employers need to map transferrable skills to job requirements, recruit talent from different industries and upskill talent to keep pace with new industry knowledge and practices. This would mean relooking and redefining all areas of talent management from recruitment and selection to placement and training.