SINGAPORE – Workers in six organisations in the public and private sectors, including Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) servicemen, will be getting more help with learning on the job and adapting to the quickly changing business landscape.
The six organisations inked an agreement with the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) on Friday to help them develop their workplace learning to improve productivity and accelerate business transformation.
The IAL is an autonomous institute within the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).
Besides the SAF, the other organisations are air services provider dnata Singapore, Far East Flora, Fei Siong Food Management, Fullerton Healthcare Group and the Spa Esprit Group, IAL said in a statement on Friday.
The agreements were announced by SUSS president Cheong Hee Kiat at the Learning Enterprise Alliance Award Ceremony held at the Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel on Friday evening.
The ceremony recognised 21 new members of IAL's Learning Enterprise Alliance, which facilitates knowledge sharing between businesses and adult training and education providers.
IAL executive director Lee Wing On said that the set of agreements is an extension of the institute's efforts to advocate for and create an environment that supports using workplace learning as a tool to drive business transformation.
Professor Lee elaborated on how some of these partnerships would work.
In the case of the SAF, IAL will facilitate benchmarking courses held by the Institute for Military Learning to the national skills framework and the Training and Adult Education industry's best practices, he said.
For Far East Flora, IAL will provide expertise on job evaluation, job redesign and competency frameworks, among others.
Prof Cheong said in his opening speech that uncertainty and ambiguity in the world of work can lead to people freezing up at the prospect of moving on from routine.
He said: "In the world of work, you may be expecting new types of jobs or new skills being needed, but what jobs and what skills?"
Prof Cheong said adult education and training is like a vaccine booster shot which helps workers build resistance to a quickly changing global environment and also reshape work and the workforce.
Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, who was the guest of honour at the ceremony, said Singapore's economic competitiveness relies on the speed it can evolve.
He said that for this to happen, enterprises, employers and the ecosystem at large must work together, and training for adults is one important part of this larger goal.
