Forum: Adult learning should be serious, but not overly daunting

Associate Professor May Lim Sok Mui’s piece on strengthening assessments in Singapore’s Continuing Education and Training (CET) system (“A skills-first Singapore needs a rethink of assessments, not just more certificates”, March 26) resonates with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG).

We agree with Prof Lim that CET assessments must be robust, standards-based and outcomes-driven. There are several benefits that a robust, trusted assessment system can deliver.

First, assessments can inform individuals about their own level of proficiency, improving their selection of the skills and training they need to build their career health.

Second, skills-based assessments signal to employers that the individual has indeed acquired the skills to a certain level, enabling individuals to better present themselves to prospective employers.

Third, assessments as a form of feedback on training effectiveness can help guide both training providers and SSG at the system level to improve the training over time.

For these reasons, SSG has partnered with the Singapore Institute of Technology to drive the Centralised Skills Assessment and Validation Initiative, as announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in September 2025.

Skills assessment pilots are being conducted for selected skills domains in AI and the community care sector, with more to follow.

At the same time, we want to implement the assessments in a manner that does not cause individuals to shun training out of fear of testing. Adult learning should be serious, but not overly daunting.

The recently announced merger of SSG and WSG seeks to better integrate our approach to enabling individuals to improve their career health; and helping employers to invest in their workforce and adopt skills-first practices. It marks the next lap of the SkillsFuture movement, as we strive to better combine jobs and skills data, and provide innovative, end-to-end careers and skills services.

Ultimately, our shared goal is a CET system that works for everyone: one where individuals can invest in themselves with clarity, employers can hire with confidence, and skills-first practices become the norm.

We are grateful to thought leaders like Prof Lim for their role in this journey and look forward to working with partners across industry, academia, and the training ecosystem to make this shared goal a reality. 

Pao Jia Yu
Deputy Chief Executive, Planning, SSG-WSG