This research endeavors to develop an understanding of who WSQ Adult Educators (AEs) in Singapore are. While the professionalization of this group is a key interest of the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), little is known about the different types of people who actually make up this group, or how they negotiate their careers as adult educators. Therefore, we intend to paint a portrait of the adult educator in Singapore by addressing the following research questions:
Unveiling who adult educators are, not just demographically, but as people with complex backgrounds, motivations, aspirations, work lives is imperative for two reasons.
Firstly it will help inform trainer workforce planning by providing necessary information to evaluate whether current courses and programmes, for the development of adult educators, are suitable and relevant. Secondly, such an understanding will address the effectiveness of training AEs by finding out whether they are getting the support and skills needed to traverse the adult education training field. For these reasons a greater understanding of adult educators has also become of interest to the wider international community as various nations seek to improve the professional development of adult educators (Brown, 2003; Buiskool, Broek, Lakerveld, Zarifis, & Osborne, 2010; Milana, 2010).
Our research will, therefore, be of interest to the international community by adding a valuable perspective from the Asian region to this body of knowledge. As the Singapore WSQ system matures, understanding our WSQ AEs is necessary to strengthen training for, and by, adult educators and thus heighten the quality of Singapore’s CET provision to compete on an international level.
This study intends to develop data on the profile of WSQ adult educators in Singapore by analysing data from three different sources:
Analysis of the collected data will be pulled together to address the research questions stated above.
To view other projects, please click here.