Keynote Address By Mr Desmond Lee, Minister For Education, At The Launch Of The Centre For Skills-First Practices

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

1. I am really delighted to join you at the launch of the Centre for Skills-First Practices.

2. Our SkillsFuture movement marks its tenth anniversary this year. In the last ten years, we have made significant progress in our mission to support Singaporeans in their lifelong learning journey. Not just support them, but to make lifelong learning a part of the DNA of living and breathing in this island city-state.

a. We have built a diverse and high-quality Continuing Education and Training (CET) ecosystem, and they comprise of our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), over 700 registered private training providers, and our industry partners.

b. We also partner very extensively with industry, business associations, and unions, to keep our training up-to-date.

c.Today, over half a million people, or one-fifth of our resident workforce, take up SkillsFuture-supported courses each year. More importantly, we see that employer support is strong with over 24,000 sending their employees for training in 2024.

3. Looking ahead, SkillsFuture will continue to focus on helping our workers be employable, be competitive and be resilient throughout their careers. We also want our employers to play a bigger role in investing in our workers, so that businesses and workers benefit.

4. This is not easy, especially given rapid change in this increasingly uncertain world, which will transform business value chains, and with it, the jobs and skills that will be required. Enterprises innovate and change. In the past, business leaders were largely in control of business transformation in the ecosystem - both pre-employment training and CET, and knew how to benchmark against what direction the industry is headed. But today, with AI and other forms of technology, many industry leaders, business associations, and top honchos in enterprises, are themselves feeling the stones as they cross the river, competing to use AI to disrupt themselves so that they can disrupt others, to be the benchmark for the sector. So, there's a lot more disruption in all sectors today, and even business leaders are not quite sure of where the endpoint or the midpoint milestones are. You can imagine the challenge that our educators, our training providers, and our IHLs have in keeping pace with the changes that are happening in this world today. Many of the jobs that are in-demand today, probably did not exist five to ten years ago. So, who can predict what will happen five years from now?

5. Many of us may already experiencing this rapid rate of change today. a. As employers you may find themselves trying to fill skills gaps more frequently compared to the past, and that these gaps are not so easy to fill. b. Workers, ourselves, may find themselves having to upskill more often and undergo multiple transitions across jobs or sectors throughout their careers.

Why Skills-First

6. To thrive amidst rapid change, what we need to do is to double down on our efforts to move decisively to a skills-first approach.

a. Now, this does not mean that we have to choose only skills or qualifications. Rather, a skills-first approach means that we put the focus on skills in hiring, training and career progression.

b. Qualifications still remain relevant because in a way they signal the skills that an individual has, and our IHLs will continue to work with industry to ensure that our curriculum adapts to industry and technological developments. There was a lady I met a couple of years ago who had been given an opportunity by her first boss when she was young. While she did not have the qualifications that most people would associate with this job, she had put her heart and soul and it built her career expertise and experience tremendously. She spoke confidently, knew her stuff, but because the company downsized and left our shores, she was made redundant. When she came to see me, she was struggling to find a next job, despite her skills and experience. Back then, HR looked at qualifications. I think those firms really lost out on a good employee, and we all felt for her. This must change, and I’m sure we’re heading in the right direction.

c. So, if we rely on qualifications alone, we will miss out on the capabilities and experience that formal qualifications may not capture. Individuals could also have picked up skills in the workplace, which may not be reflected in these qualifications or captured in any formal training.

7. To move towards a skills-first approach, we require a few things to happen:

a. First, our businesses need to proactively identify and invest in the skills of their workers;

b. Second, individuals need to be deliberate in our training and career choices; and

c. Third, our training providers need to accurately meet these skills needs with the training they provide.

Launch of Centre for Skills-First Practices

8. To support this skills-first approach, the Institute for Adult Learning will be launching the Centre for Skills-First Practices today as part of the SkillsFuture movement.

a. The Centre will drive the adoption of the skills-first approach by building capabilities in skills-first practices, such as through developing analytical tools to translate job requirements into skills requirements.

b. It will learn from best practices across the world, so as to position Singapore as a thought leader contributing to skills-first practices and skills-first research.

9. Recently, the Centre developed the Skills-First Readiness and Adoption Index together with the OECD.

a. This index is the first framework-of-its-kind to measure individual countries’ readiness and adoption of skills-first practices. It looks at the extent to which skills-first principles are embedded in the design and delivery of training, whether skills are formally recognised and rewarded, and whether there are foundations in place to support a shift towards a skills-first approach.

b. Out of the 30 countries analysed by this Index, Singapore is ranked 12th out of 30. So clearly, there is room for improvement.

10. Let me share how the Centre will galvanise action by employers, individuals and training providers to adopt skills-first practices.

Strengthening Support for Employers’ Skills-First Adoption

11. First, employers. Our employers must be the key driving force if Singapore is to successfully adopt a skills-first approach. a. By identifying skills needed for job roles, and signaling to them when to hire or promote your staff, employers create strong impetus for workers to upskill and reskill in the right areas. You send the right signals and model the right behaviours.

12. So, on top of the existing support measures and digital tools that employers can tap on for workforce planning and development, the new Centre for Skills-First Practices will provide customised advisory support for employers, who want to implement skills-first practices.

a. Take for example, Cragar (pronounced “cray-gar”) Industries, and Craygar is an SME that specialises in precision manufacturing in the MedTech sector.

b. You worked with the Centre to pilot a skills-first approach in job redesign and training, because you wanted to overcome your manpower challenges and keep up with digital transformation. And in so doing, you benefit your employees greatly.

c. The Centre helped Cragar apply a skills-first lens to redesign jobs by breaking down job roles into tasks and then identifying the kind of skills required to meet Cragar’s digital transformation needs. The job roles were then restructured around the skills that employees already had and those they needed to acquire, creating very clear pathways for training and progression, so the firm was very systematic in their partnership with the Centre.

d. To further incentivise workers to upskill, Cragar is also piloting a skills-first remuneration system, where a portion of compensation for some of their teams is tied to demonstrated skills proficiencies.

13. Many employers here may be interested in catalysing a skills-first transformation for your business, the way Craygar has done, but may not know how to take that first step forward. I encourage you to approach this new Centre for advice and support.

Making Jobs and Skills Insights More Accessible

14. Now, the adoption of skills-first practices must go beyond employers. As learners we have to make informed skills-based decisions, supported by industry relevant training. Therefore, having accurate, updated insights on how jobs, tasks and skills are evolving would be critical to facilitate informed decision-making by all parties.

a. These insights are possible because SkillsFuture Singapore has established what we call a National Skills Framework. This framework consolidates the skills frameworks across 38 different industry sectors. Through this common language of skills, our employers can better articulate their skills gaps, training providers can activate the supply of skills required and individuals can acquire these in-demand skills through appropriate training.

b. And we are going to take the next step. My colleagues at SkillsFuture Singapore are now refreshing the National Skills Framework. From mid-2026 onwards, this new Skills Framework 2.0 will provide you with a more comprehensive, data-driven and dynamic mapping of jobs to tasks and associated skills. This refresh needs to be taken up at a quicker pace because things are changing rapidly.

15. In turn, the Centre will support SkillsFuture Singapore to make such jobs-skills insights, which can be rather technical, more accessible to both our training providers and the members of the public.