Singapore’s education sector must evolve to stay competitive globally

This article is more than 12 months old

Nov 03, 2020 06:00 am

There are "tremendous opportunities" to relook how training and education is conducted in the industry and beyond Singapore, said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing yesterday.

He mapped out four broad changes in the education sector, which must evolve to remain competitive.

CONTINUED LEARNING

Singapore has to find new ways of educating adult learners.

"It is no longer about just compulsory education, but it is about continuing education."

OFFLINE LEARNING

Covid-19 has hastened how learning is now not just offline, but also online.

"There are both benefits of online and offline teaching methods. The challenge for us is to... combine both methods and get the best outcome for our students."

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COMBINED EFFORT

Schools and companies must increasingly work together.

"Today you will find that many more of our courses, especially adult learning courses, will have to combine classroom learning with on-the-job training with businesses."

EXPERTISE

It is no longer sufficient to have expertise in only one subject.

"Many of our students will no longer just narrowly learn about accountancy, they will also deal with business development. They may even deal with legal and financial aspects of the adjacent competencies." - THE STRAITS TIMES