What are the skills Singaporeans will need to craft careers 20 years down the road?
The upcoming Straits Times Future Economy Forum aims to offer some suggestions.
Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung will be the guest of honour at the Oct 20 forum, which will see experts from academia, the Government and the corporate sector share their views on the future.
Mr Ong will give a keynote address on jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans. He will also take part in a panel discussion on how Singaporeans should prepare themselves for the future, as the rise of robots and the digitisation of the economy reshape jobs.
In another panel, corporate leaders will paint scenarios of Singapore's socio-economic and political landscape in 2035. The speakers are Shell Singapore chairman Goh Swee Chen, Parkway Pantai Singapore chief executive Kelvin Loh, DBS Singapore country head Sim S. Lim and EY Asean and Singapore managing partner Max Loh.
About 450 people, including students from institutes of higher learning, will be attending the invitation-only forum at the Singapore University of Technology and Design auditorium.
The forum is the culmination of a series of closed-door roundtables hosted by senior ST editors earlier this year on seven areas of the economy, such as banking, energy and manufacturing. At these roundtables, experts painted a future where we consume virtual reality as part of our everyday media diet, where we seek cheaper healthcare in nearby countries, and where our colleagues might not even be human, but robots instead.
Both the roundtables and the upcoming forum are sponsored by Shell, DBS, Parkway Pantai and EY.
The forum comes ahead of a report by the Committee on the Future Economy early next year. The committee has been tasked with charting a blueprint for Singapore's economic future.
Said Mr Warren Fernandez, editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings' English/Malay/Tamil Media group and editor of The Straits Times: "We have brought together a stellar cast of leaders and thinkers to ponder the future, and engage the audience on what it might hold for all of us, both in terms of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead."
ST subscribers who are interested in attending the forum can look out for an e-mail invitation with details on how to sign up for the 30 available seats.