How Singapore uses skills data to support lifelong learning
Digital HR Leaders Podcast hosted by David Green EP 52: Wenshan Xu, SkillsFuture SG

How Singapore uses skills data to support lifelong learning

David Green 🇺🇦 David Green 🇺🇦

David Green 🇺🇦

Co-Author of Excellence in People Analytics | People Analytics leader | Director, Insight222 & myHRfuture.com | Conference speaker | Host, Digital HR Leaders Podcast

Published Jan 19, 2021
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Learning is no longer front-loaded - it is now lifelong with multiple career and training pathways

According to the latest Future of Jobs report from the World Economic Forum, by 2025 50% of all employees will need to be reskilled. Moreover, also by 2025, the same research predicts 97m new jobs will emerge and 85m will be displaced by a shift in labour between humans and machines. Most commentators believe that the pandemic has only accelerated this progress.

It is perhaps hardly a surprise then that the 2020 PwC Global CEO Survey found that 74% of CEOs are concerned about the availability of key skills, and worried that this shortage of talent will constrain growth. This pressure translates to HR with Gartner finding that the top priority for HR leaders in 2021 is building critical skills and competencies for the organisation.

Skills is not just a key challenge for organisations, it is a challenge for entire countries and Singapore provides a template that others could – and perhaps should follow.

The mission of SkillsFuture SG (or SSG for short) is to build a skills-competitive Singapore and a nation of resilient and confident lifelong learners. SSG links employers, education providers and citizens together to create a skills and learning ecosystem that meets the changing requirements of jobs in the country.

My guest today is Wenshan Xu, Deputy Director of the Skills Development Group at SkillsFuture SG. Wenshan describes the work her and her team as an intelligence unit for skills, and as you’ll hear the work they are doing is as fascinating as it is important.

Our mission is to build a skills-competitive Singapore and a nation of resilient and confident lifelong learners

You can listen by clicking on the image below or by visiting the podcast website here.

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In our conversation Wenshan and I discuss:

  • How SSG helped reskill workers in sectors affected by the pandemic and transition them to sectors that were hiring ("With the COVID pandemic, we have significantly ramped up our efforts to enable individuals, employers and training providers to make more informed decisions based on skills.")
  • How SSG works with employers, education providers and citizens to create a skills and learning ecosystem that meets the changing requirements of jobs in the country ("Before we can understand skills, we need to first understand how sectors are evolving and business models are changing.")
  • How each Singaporean who is 25 years old and over is empowered with an annual SkillsFuture credit to support their learning ("You can say that the SkillsFuture Credit is our strategy in putting the power of learning in the hands of the individual to chart their own learning journey.")
  • How Wenshan’s team uses data, analytics and machine learning to understand the supply and demand of skills now and in the future ("Since 2015, SSG has been developing the Skills Frameworks to facilitate skills recognition and create a common skills language for individuals, employers and training providers in each sector.") 
  • The Skills Taxonomy that has been developed encompassing 34 skills frameworks, 11,000 skills competencies and 1,000 job roles ("The Skills Taxonomy cuts across all sectors and allows us to conduct data analysis using machine learning more readily and systematically to understand skills.") 
  • How all this supports the vision for talent mobility in Singapore ("In a talent mobility situation, what goes around comes around – talents that you invest in may flow out but they can eventually return to your company with more experience.") 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested or involved in skills, learning and workforce planning so that’s business leaders, CHROs and anyone in a People Analytics or HR Business Partner role.

Remote and hybrid working has become the new normal. Even after the pandemic, these forms of work might continue to be the norm for the majority of our workforce. 


LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my discussion with Wenshan, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: How Singapore uses skills data to support lifelong learning.


WATCH THE VIDEOS

As well as the podcast, there will be a couple of videos available on the myHRfuture YouTube channel highlighting two of the topics Wenshan and I covered in our conversation. In the video below, Wenshan provides some thoughts on what HR can do to prepeare their organisation for virtual working. 


GET INVOLVED

If you enjoyed listening to this week's podcast episode, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:

  1. Please subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
  2. Please take the time to rate the show on iTunes. We rely on your feedback and support to make the podcast, so this is very helpful!
  3. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
  4. Lastly, don’t forget to share on social media with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!


THANK YOU

A huge thank you to Wenshan for sharing her time and expertise with our listeners. You can follow Wenshan on LinkedIn and also find out more about SkillsFuture SG by visiting the SkillsFuture SG website and reading this interview with Wenshan's colleague Soon Joo Gog, Chief Futurist, Chief Skills Officer, and Chief Research Officer: Purposeful learning today, future-ready skills for jobs tomorrow.

Additionally, I recommend reading Lewis Garrad's article: What are the Skills needed to Create a Culture of Lifelong Learning? This includes details of the work Lewis and his team at Mercer undertook with SkillsFuture SG on the 'skills to build skills' (see FIG 1)

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FIG 1: The Critical Core Skills Framework. Source: SkillsfutureSG, Singapore Government

Thanks to OrgVue for sponsoring Series 11 of the podcast, and also Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa, Caroline Styr and the myHRfuture team for creating the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.

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CATCH UP ON THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to all of the episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast on myHRfuture.

SEE ME SPEAK AT THESE EVENTS

I’ll be chairing and/or speaking about how to drive business value and employee experience through people analytics as well as the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in People Analytics model at the following upcoming events:

cse choo

Piano Teacher | Pianist | Composer | Youtuber | Aspiring Mentor

3y

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Marc Steven Ramos

Learning Executive, CLO; 20 years' transforming L&D to enable companies attain their maximum potential | Google, Novartis, Microsoft/ Accenture, Oracle | Harvard Learning Fellow | Thought Leader, Advisor, Author, Dad

3y

Dushyant. Amber. Peter.

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Priya Sunil

Deputy Editor, Southeast Asia

3y

Thanks so much David for sharing, great initiatives indeed!

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Alison Eyring PhD

Founder and CEO @ Produgie | SIOP Fellow | Board Chair | Educator | Author, “Pacing for Growth” | Investor

3y

David - thanks for featuring the work of SkillsFuture SG. The Singapore government is so progressive in how it approaches the development of capabilities needed for the future. It's a tiny nation clearly hitting above its weight class!

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