The collaboration will strengthen the TAE sector, and enable the Institute for Adult Learning, and the partner TAE institutions, to combine their expertise and deepen our national capability to deliver high quality adult learning.

SINGAPORE, 5 July 2022 – The Training and Adult Education (TAE) sector is set to be given a boost, as institutions unite to elevate the quality of Continuing Education and Training (CET) provision, and better support the workforce in adapting to the changing needs of the economy. The Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), an autonomous institute of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) today inked two Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with NTUC LearningHub and Singapore’s five polytechnics. The signing ceremony is held at the SkillsFuture Forum, which is the opening event of the SkillsFuture Festival 2022.

Guest-of-Honour Minister for Education, Mr Chan Chun Sing, graced the event at the Lifelong Learning Institute.

The partnerships forged today will enable IAL and its key partners to better drive the professionalisation and continuous upskilling of our adult educators. Professionals in the TAE sector can look forward to higher quality and industry responsive training, that raises the learning experience and learning effectiveness for all adult learners in Singapore. Specific areas of collaboration will include IAL-polytechnic staff interactions and exchanges, strengthened synergy with SUSS, digital transformation in CET delivery with technology companies, industry-recognised accreditation, and the scaling up of NTUC LearningHub’s Career Agility Hub (CAH).

Mr Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive of SSG and Chairman of IAL Council, said, “Adult educators are key to the delivery of effective and high quality adult learning. They prepare our workforce with the skills and competencies to achieve career goals, and to thrive amid uncertainty. IAL, our polytechnics and NTUC LearningHub will now join forces to ‘upskill our upskillers’. We invite all our adult educators and institutions to join us in this endeavour.”

Professor Lee Wing On, IAL’s Executive Director, said, “The deep embeddedness of training and education institutes within the industry is crucial for long-term growth and prosperity. With the digital revolution accelerating, remote working becoming commonplace, supply chain networks restructuring, and the resulting skills gap and talent imbalance, it is imperative that we act promptly, and IAL as the key institute for adult learning, together with our partners, seeks to fulfil that role. As an organisation that has espoused these values since its founding, we at IAL are looking forward to the prospects of this symbiotic collaboration between IAL, the polytechnics, NTUC LearningHub and SkillsFuture Singapore, complemented with initiatives that ensure quality and efficiency that will enable us to go far together.”

Deepening links between the academia and the TAE sector

This landmark agreement between IAL, SkillsFuture Singapore and Singapore's five polytechnics, namely, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic, is the first time these parties have come together to collaborate in the CET space. The intent is to synergise IAL's expertise in adult learning with the polytechnics’ institutional capabilities in education and industry outreach. Specifically, a community of practice (COP) will facilitate exchanges and sharing of best practices between teaching staff, adult educators (AE), and adjunct educators of polytechnics. In addition, the agreement will involve the curation, development, and delivery of industry-relevant TAE programmes, as well as short-term two-way attachments between IAL and the polytechnics, amongst other collaborative initiatives.

Ms Jeanne Liew, Principal and CEO, Nanyang Polytechnic, said, “This collaboration will help enhance the Teaching & Learning expertise of adult educators in the Training and Adult Education (TAE) sector in Singapore. The polytechnics play a significant role in training Singapore’s workforce to meet the current and emerging demands of the workplace. With this partnership, educators will now have an additional avenue to share best practices with the TAE community and adapt these learnings in their curriculum delivery to better prepare learners for the workplace of the future.”

Mr Lim Kok Kiang, Principal and CEO, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, said “We are pleased to partner IAL to provide a platform that brings our academic staff together to exchange andragogical know-how, best practices, and ideas to enhance the adult learning experience. Fostering an active and collaborative community of adult educators with diverse capabilities, experiences and perspectives can help to further raise the quality and spark new possibilities and innovative solutions for an expanding adult learning sector.”

Mr Yeo Li Pheow, Principal and CEO, Republic Polytechnic, said, “This partnership will foster a strong culture of professional collaboration and pedagogical excellence across the institutes of higher learning, and further enhance the standing and quality of training and adult education in Singapore. It will play an important role in the co-construction of knowledge amongst the educators as they learn from each other, with each other and through each other. The establishment of a community of practice will be an enabler for educators to share pedagogical knowledge and collectively advance the lifelong learning cause”

Mr Soh Wai Wah, Principal and CEO, Singapore Polytechnic, said, “As digital transformation and globalisation accelerate changes in how we live, learn and work, the workforce needs to update their knowledge, skills and competencies to bridge the gap between their education and training, and the demands of a rapidly evolving economy. Through the signing of this MOU, Singapore Polytechnic hopes to entrust our adult educators with the ability to align curricula design and content with in-demand jobs and skills to successfully supplement the talent pool of today and the future.”

Mr. Peter Lam, Principal and CEO, Temasek Polytechnic said, “This collaboration is a good opportunity for SSG, SUSS-IAL and the polytechnics to work together in the area of adult education. Temasek Polytechnic is excited to see how we can enhance our contribution to the growing Training and Adult Education sector in Singapore, through various communities of practices and partnerships. Through this partnership, we look forward to deepen cross-institutional staff exchanges, and further build up capabilities in the training and development of adult educators as well as research in adult learning methods.”

Scaling up the workforce of the future

In this second agreement, IAL, NTUC LearningHub, and SkillsFuture Singapore will collaborate to build AEs' domain and andragogical skills at scale, provide opportunities for continuing professional development, and establish the NTUC LearningHub’s CAH as a platform for the community of adult education practitioners to build up their skills and careers portfolio. The joint effort to strengthen the CAH will better enable IAL to aggregate the skills needs of AEs and AE freelancers, and train them for market readiness based on their job profiles and skills gaps.

Mr Jeremy Ong, Chief Executive Officer of NTUC LearningHub, said, “We take pride in being at the heart of Singapore's lifelong learning culture, and that means never resting on our laurels in all aspects of our training solutions. To deliver world-class training to the Singapore workforce, it is paramount that we constantly develop and enhance the capabilities of our adult educators and trainers by placing importance on their professional development. The signing of the MOU provides NTUC LearningHub with a new impetus to raise the bar even higher on the quality of our adult training andragogy and trainers and to explore new areas of cooperation that address shared industry priorities and interests of the TAE sector. We are also excited to pilot our Career Agility Hub app to serve as a bridge for adult educators and their career goals through skills gap analyses and career recommendations.”

Among the 7,566 polytechnic graduate survey respondents in the labour force, 58.1% were in full-time permanent employment, while 29.4% were in part‐time/temporary employment, including 2.2% who were on the SGUnited Traineeships Programme. Another 2.5% had either accepted a job offer or were actively starting a business venture. Consistent with previous years, about half the polytechnic graduates in part-time/temporary employment were concurrently pursuing or preparing to begin further studies.