By Ramesh Subbaraman
Efforts are underway to raise the quality of the Training and Adult Education (TAE) sector in Singapore with the launch of a transformation plan.
Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung announced this at the Adult Learning Symposium on 3 November 2016.
Recommendations
The plan for the training and adult education sector follows consultations with some 150 industry players by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG).
There are seven recommendations in the plan to reposition the sector for growth, strengthen the infrastructure and address manpower and skills needs.
For example, companies are urged to value skills development for their employees, and translate government workforce policies into reality at the workplace.
Explained Minister Ong: “Training is not just delivering and showing slides, but you dive into the dreams, hopes and fears of your trainees and help them develop. You hone their skills and raise their game to a higher level.”
He also found it encouraging that Singapore’s autonomous universities are setting up adult training units.
NTUC is currently working with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) on enhancing adult learning.
Reactions
Welcoming the transformation plan was NTUC LearningHub (LHUB).
LHUB CEO Kwek Kok Kwong said: “The transformation plan forges closer integration with the Industry Transformation Maps and Industry Manpower Plans. This integration and our close links with the newly- formed Future Jobs, Skills and Training (FJST) unit in NTUC allows LHUB to know with greater certainty which new areas to focus on.”
Since its corporatisation in 2004, LHUB has trained nearly 2 million workers and worked with more than 10,000 companies on their training needs.
