Forum: Let’s see real results from lifelong learning

Singapore has built a world-class lifelong learning system. SkillsFuture, Workforce Singapore and mid-career initiatives have created opportunities for citizens to upskill themselves throughout their working lives.

Yet after a decade, many still ask: “I’ve completed the course – so why hasn’t my career moved?”

We have perfected the process of training, but not the outcome of progress.

Providers design courses to meet funding criteria. Citizens use credits to stay active. Employers – the ultimate absorbers of skill – remain unevenly engaged.

The result: a machinery of learning without a marketplace of mobility.

A mid-career professional may be retrained in data analytics, only to find employers prefer younger hires. If companies claim they cannot find locals while overlooking capable Singaporeans, the issue lies in job design and wage structures, not effort.

Singapore does not need more courses; it needs coherence. Training must connect to real jobs, outcomes must be measured and employers must co-invest in meaningful skills.

Lifelong learning was never meant to be a ritual of compliance. It was meant to deliver results – a compact of trust between citizens, employers and the state.

Only by aligning skills, opportunity and accountability can learning translate into progress, not just certificates.

Ives Tay