Refreshed Training and Adult Education Industry Transformation Map 2025 Seeks to Strengthen Partnership with Employers and Industries

Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Education and Manpower, launched the Training and Adult Education (TAE) Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025 at the inaugural TAE Conference today. The refreshed ITM seeks to position the TAE sector as a relevant and responsive partner in workforce development and enterprise transformation, to employers across all industries

In 2018, SSG launched the inaugural TAE ITM. The sector has since made good progress in i) adopting business and pedagogical innovation, including use of blended and online learning; ii) raising productivity, for example, through the use of administrative IT systems; iii) establishing the Training Quality and Outcomes Management (TRAQOM) system to gather timely learner feedback; and iv) improving the career and skills progression pathways for adult educators, such as through the Adult Education Professionalisation (AEP) initiative.   

Building on this progress, and learning from the experience of the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, the TAE ITM 2025 lays out four key strategies for the sector’s next phase of transformation: 

a)   Improve industry relevance and market responsiveness

The sector, with support from SSG, will deepen partnerships with industry, and introduce new collaborative models between training providers and enterprises. At the ecosystem level, skills recognition and skills credentialling will be promoted. 

b)    Innovate and digitalise at scale

The sector will develop innovations in the delivery of adult learning, so that learning is better contextualised to the circumstances of adult learners. To this end, the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) as the National Centre of Excellence for Adult Learning, will intensify both research and research translation in andragogy. 

c)    Invest in adult educators and sectoral capabilities.

There will be better use of online learning and continual development programmes to uplift the capabilities of adult educators. For a start, the   Workforce Skills Qualifications Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance has been revamped to equip aspiring adult educators with foundational skills in a shorter time. Capabilities in skills identification and development will also be strengthened across the ecosystem, for example, with the Skills Development Partners programme. 

d)    Internationalise to strengthen sector resilience

Training providers who are ready will be supported by SSG and partner agencies to export Continuing Education and Training (CET) to overseas markets. This is so that the sector may, as a whole, gain experience and acquire a broader perspective in the effective delivery of CET.

For more information on the TAE ITM 2025 and its strategies, please refer to Annex A.

Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Education and Manpower, and Co-Chair of the Future Economy Council (FEC) Human Health & Potential Cluster, said, “I am pleased to launch the TAE ITM 2025, which sets out a roadmap for the TAE sector’s next phase of transformation. The ITM 2025 seeks to raise the industry relevance and market responsiveness of adult training in Singapore, so as to improve individual worker’s employability and support enterprise transformation across industries. We will do this by deepening partnerships with enterprises and sectors, and through leveraging technology and innovation. But to realise the ITM, employers too need to take strong ownership of the upskilling of their workers.”

Ms Euleen Goh, Co-Chair of the FEC Human Health & Potential Cluster, said, “Like many other industries in the economy, the TAE sector will need to transform to keep pace with the rapidly changing training demands and needs of employers and the workforce. We are glad to partner SSG in developing the roadmap for TAE ITM 2025 that will help guide the sector to further enhance its competencies and capabilities.”

Mr Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive of SkillsFuture Singapore, said, “The TAE sector plays a major role in raising the employability of Singaporeans and the capabilities of enterprises. SSG will do its part to realise the ITM strategies and help our training partners succeed. We will focus on outcomes, encourage innovation, and invest in the capabilities of the sector and of our adult educators.”

Please download Annex A.