Over 250 Small and Medium Enterprises participate in conference on skills investment

Over 250 representatives from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) attended the inaugural SkillsFuture SME Conference 2023 held at the Lifelong Learning Institute. Themed “By Industry, For Industry”, the event aimed to inspire and empower SMEs to take charge of their workforce skills development across the three priority growth pillars – Digital Economy, Care Economy, and Green Economy, and was graced by Minister of State for Education and Manpower, Ms Gan Siow Huang.

The strong involvement in the event by industry partners, such as the SkillsFuture Queen Bees (SFQBs) and the Skills Development Partners (SDPs), epitomised the spirit of collective ownership, by worker, industry and government, in workforce skills development.

The event also saw new initiatives announced by the SDPs – Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP), Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES), Singapore Computer Society (SCS) and SGTech – to support SMEs in their skills needs, in their respective sectors. For more information, please refer to Annex A.

Among the attendees were SMEs who had benefitted from the SFQB programme. To date, more than 2,300 enterprises have benefitted from the skills development activities organised by 30 SFQBs across various sectors.

Mr Joshua Lim, Partner at J.N.L. LLP said, “Having made the decision to move towards a more sustainable future, we recognised the need to be better equipped with skills to correctly communicate and represent not just our product offerings with clients and stakeholders but also better chart out the company’s directions and goals. DBS came onboard and helped us identify courses that were highly relevant for us to up-skill our employees and equip all of us with the right knowledge to move us in the right direction without having the need to hire externally. We not only saved the hassle of looking for the right candidates but we also helped employees to grow in their own roles and develop skills and knowledge that can be relevant even if they move on elsewhere eventually.”

Ms Tan Poh Lan, Cordlife’s Group CEO and Executive Director said, “The RISE by BCG programme was a perfect fit for Cordlife and any forward-looking business seeking to grasp the evolving digital landscape and empower its workforce with top-tier digital practices. We supported key personnel in upskilling essential digital skills for the Company's Digital Transformation Journey. At Cordlife, we firmly believe that, while adapting to this transformative digital shift, businesses must maintain an open mind, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The RISE by BCG initiative provided us with vital insights that guided our company in aligning its operations with our long-term goals and communication strategies.”

Over 205,000 participants for SkillsFuture Festival 2023

The SkillsFuture SME Conference concluded the SkillsFuture Festival 2023, which kicked off on 4 July 2023. The annual festival attracted over 205,000 participants and 1,300 enterprises across more than 190 events.

Mr Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) said “The success of the SkillsFuture Festival is measured in how many Singaporeans we persuade, enable, or advise, to take concrete action to upskill. We know that a major motivation to upskilling is the individual’s desire to be a stronger professional, a better colleague, a more valuable member of the company or organisation. It is therefore fitting that we end the Festival with this event “By Industry, For Industry”, for employers to re-affirm their ownership of workforce development, and for industry and government to join forces to further strengthen the national lifelong learning system for our workers.”

Refer to Annex here.

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