Prof Brenda Gourley, Vice Chancellor, The Open University of the United Kingdom
Dr Linda Jones, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Curriculum and Awards), The Open University of the United Kingdom
Mr Lim Soon Hock, Chairman, SIM Governing Council
Graduands
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am most happy to celebrate with you the fifth graduation ceremony of the SIM-Open University Degree Programme (OUDP). 10 years ago, the Ministry of Education requested SIM to offer the Open University Degree Programme in collaboration with The Open University of The United Kingdom. The first intake started studies in 1994. Since then, the OUDP has grown from offering 3 basic degree programmes to the current range of 17 multidisciplinary degree programmes. Including this year's graduands, some 2,700 students have graduated.
The OUDP is an innovative method that gives adult learners the opportunity to acquire new knowledge leading to a degree qualification. In Singapore, the SIM-OUDP has helped to inculcate a culture of independent study for our working adults, who have to juggle heavy work schedules and family commitments with the need to update and enhance their knowledge. The programme allows the participants to learn at their own pace. But it is by no means a relaxing experience. The teaching is rigorous, and the requirements are exacting. By successfully completing their courses, the graduates not only show that they have internalised new knowledge, but more importantly perseverance and a strong ability to organise their time and priorities in life. May I invite you to join me in warm congratulations to all the graduating students their outstanding achievements.
I am pleased to read the recent announcement that the SIM-OUDP has moved on to a higher level of partnership. The SIM-OUDP has been granted accreditation status by the Open University of UK. SIM-OUDP is now an autonomous centre within SIM. It has been renamed the SIM-Open University Centre, or SIM-OUC.
Accreditation gives SIM-OUC greater autonomy and flexibility to adapt, design and direct its academic programmes to better meet the needs of our students here in Singapore. While OUUK will continue to award the degrees, SIM-OUC will enjoy greater independence in shaping the approach to make the courses more directly relevant to our economy and regional context. SIM-OUC will take in the first group of students from January 2003. When ready, SIM-OUC will market its programmes to the region as well, to the benefit of millions of working adults in our neighbouring countries. I congratulate SIM and OUUK for entering into this enhanced collaboration.
May I suggest to SIM and OUUK, and urge them, to do more? Globalisation and the rapid advance of technology bring much disruption to the workers all over the world. Singaporean workers are not spared. New work processes displace outmoded ones. Investors close down their operations here and shift to lower cost countries. Companies outsource their production rather than employ staff to do the work.
In the process, workers are displaced. They are transferred to new departments to do a different kind of work, or they may even face layoffs. To keep their present job or to be employed in a new job, they need to acquire new skills and new knowledge.
Today, 100,000 Singaporeans are unemployed. The economic agencies expect to create 120,000 jobs in the coming 5 years. But these jobs are not going to be the same as the old ones that were lost. They will be in new areas, new industries and new technologies. To get into these jobs, our workers have to be re-trained.
The Government has an extensive programme to fund re-training. But while there are many courses and subsidies available, some workers are still not taking up the opportunity of re-learning and being re-trained. At the heart of the problem is a fear among the workers of re-training. They are afraid of being unable to cope with the lessons. They don't want to be slow and hold back the rest of the class. They cannot relate the new concepts to what they already know - they should not do that, but they don't know how to un-learn.
I believe that we cannot teach adults in their 40s and 50s in the same way as we teach teenagers. I know from personal experience. My two teenaged children learn new tricks on the Internet in seconds, while I take hours just to find the right button to click. I refuse to admit to that our thought process is slower. It is just different!
The Government has a plan to make lifelong learning a reality for every Singaporean. At this stage, we are just taking the first few steps in a very long journey. In many of our training programmes right now, we take the course materials written for young students and use them in the same way in the adult classes. I think we can achieve much more by taking a different approach. We should invest some effort to gain a better understanding of the process of learning in adults. We should re-design the courses now taught in the polytechnics and other institutions to suit the needs of working adults. We cannot just help them learn, because they do not start with a blank slate. We have to help them un-learn and re-learn.
SIM and OUUK have many years of experience in helping adult learners learn. While your focus is in degree level programmes, your knowledge and understanding of the learning process in adults must surely be applicable to other levels of teaching. I hope that you can multiply your contribution to the working population in Singapore by sharing this valuable knowledge, and offering help to the training organisations that seek your help. There is so much we need to do, and so little time to do it in.
I would also like to seek the help of our graduands and graduates of SIM-OUDP to propagate the message of lifelong learning. You too can share your personal experience in learning and re-learning. Your personal achievement will be an inspiration to your friends and your subordinates at the workplace. Help them to overcome their fears, and attain their potentials as you have done. I wish you many more successes in the future. And I wish SIM and OUUK a strong and lasting partnership that will benefit many more generations of working adults in Singapore.
Thank you.
