Speech at Institute for Adult Learning (IAL)'s "Skills-First: Framework for Action" Launch

Acting Minister for Manpower Jasmin Lau , Sands Expo and Convention Centre

OPENING: BUILDING ON A DECADE OF SKILLSFUTURE

1. Good morning everyone, 

2. When employers assess job applicants, the first questions are usually: What was your last job? What did you study in school? Where did you study? We don’t often know why they ask these questions, and if they ask a job applicant aged 50, the 50-year-old often wonders, “Why do you care so much where I went to school?” These are common questions. But they tell us more about where someone has been than where they could go. 

3. Skills-First, which Prof Terence Ho introduced earlier, asks something very different. It would ask: What can you do, and what can you learn to do next? Not where you have been and what have you done.

4. Eleven years ago, we launched SkillsFuture so that Singaporeans could keep learning and progress through skills throughout their lives. We have come quite far over the 11 years. 

5. Through initiatives such as the Skills Frameworks, SkillsFuture Credit and the Careers & Skills Passport, workers better understand the skills they need and businesses can better prepare for change. 

6. Training participation among resident workers reached an all-time high of 54.8% in 2025. Through SWDA’s and e2i’s programmes, we placed more than 62,000 locals into jobs during the same period. These included mid-career workers who moved into new roles through Career Conversion Programmes. About nine in ten of them are still employed two years on.

7. So Skills-First is not a new idea, and I am glad many employers already practise it. 

8. Nelson, who is here with us today, joined his company HSC Pipeline Engineering with a background in business management. He moved into a site role when he saw an opportunity. When HSC brought in utility mapping, it needed people who could work with the new technology. Nelson was keen to learn. The company paid for his training and let him use it on real projects. Today he is an Assistant Project Manager, leading a team of engineers and using mapping data to plan projects better.

9. Nobody looking only at Nelson’s CV would have put him in charge of engineers. If someone asked him what he studied in school, he probably also would not be put in charge of engineers. HSC saw what he could learn, and grew him into that role.

SINGAPORE'S NEXT BOUND OF WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

10. But stories like Nelson’s are still uneven across our economy, even as they matter more today. Jobs are being redesigned, skills are going out of date faster, and career switches are becoming more common. 

11. The World Economic Forum expects around 22% of jobs globally to undergo structural transformation by 2030, while nearly 40% of today’s skills are expected to change over the same period.

12. AI will speed this up. But the skills that count will not all be technical. Judgement, and the ability to apply what you know in a new situation, will matter more than ever. Workers carry these from role to role, yet they rarely show up on a CV, nor do they talk about it openly in their job interviews. A Skills-First approach makes these types of skills visible, alongside qualifications and experience.

13. Skills also give workers and employers a common language. A worker can ask his employer: what can I do today, and what should I build next? An employer can ask their workers: what do we need to grow as a team, and do we already have it somewhere in our own team?

IAL’s SKILLS-FIRST: FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION

14. Today, the Institute for Adult Learning, or IAL, launches the Skills-First: Framework for Action. It is the result of two years of research and conversations with employers, unions, educators and HR practitioners. Thank you to everyone who contributed to it.

15. The Framework aims to turn good individual practices like HSC’s into common practice across Singapore. It proposes twelve pilot ideas that organisations may explore and refine, and a Skills-First Observatory that could build up evidence on what works.

16. The Government, in particular the Ministry of Manpower, welcomes this research. It adds to our understanding of how skills can be better recognised, developed and used. Applied well, Skills-First practices could help workers show what they can do and open doors to new roles. It can also help employers find talent they already have but perhaps are not using, and widen the pool that they can potentially hire.

LEARNING AND WORKING TOGETHER ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT 

17. SWDA was set up to bring skills development and workforce transformation closer together. SWDA will engage IAL and other partners to see what can be learnt from the Framework and its pilots, and how Skills-First can be made easier to practise.

18. Many partners are already part of this. The Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore National Employers Federation will help businesses put Skills-First into their workforce decisions. The Labour Movement and e2i will support workers through career guidance and job matching. The Singapore University of Social Sciences and IAL will build practitioner capability and share what works.

19. On this note, let me congratulate the first cohort of 12 Adult Education Fellows recognised today under the new national Training and Adult Educator Professional Pathway. They come from different fields, but share a commitment to helping adults keep learning. As jobs change, adult education has to stay close to what industry needs. I look forward to the Fellows bringing their experience and leadership to strengthen our ecosystem. 

CLOSING 

20. This Framework is a start, not a finish. IAL’s Centre for Skills-First Practices will bring employers and workforce leaders together to test ideas and share what works. I hope many of you will join them.

21. SkillsFuture began with a simple belief that every Singaporean can keep growing, at any age. Skills-First carries that belief into the decisions that shape a career, like who gets hired and who gets the next chance. Somewhere in your organisation, there is probably another Nelson. I hope you find them. 

22. Thank you.