Speech by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Education and Minister-In-Charge of Social Services Integration, at the SkillsFuture Festival @ South West

Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Minister of State, Mayor of South West District,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. I'm very happy to join you at the SkillsFuture Festival @ South West 2025.

2. This year, we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the SkillsFuture movement. Back in 2015, we started SkillsFuture to support Singaporeans in lifelong learning and skills mastery so that they can develop themselves to their fullest potential.

3. It is good that we started ten years ago. It gave us a good foundation in light of what is happening around us, and in light of the challenges ahead of us.

4. We live in an increasingly uncertain world, with rapid advancements in technology. The SkillsFuture movement is more important than ever. A few years ago, with COVID, we were concerned about our lives. Now, with the global trade war and the turn away from globalisation, we are concerned about our livelihoods and our jobs. With the advent of AI and climate change, we are concerned about the shape of our future. So, SkillsFuture is more important now than ever before.

5. In the next decade, we must go broader, we must go deeper, and we must go higher with our SkillsFuture efforts, so that we invest more intensively in our people, and ensure that we can remain competitive. Let me share what I mean when I say broader, deeper and higher.

6. First, let us talk about going broader. SkillsFuture requires a whole-of-society partnership.

1. As individuals, we must take personal responsibility for our own training, for our own career health, for our own pathways.
2. As employers, we must do our part to invest in the skills of our workforce and our people. Not just your current workers, but also your future workforce. We must play a part to shape pre-employment as well as continuous training.
3. We also need our tripartite partners like our labour movement, our trade associations and our business chambers, to reach out to individuals and employers, to invest in continual skills development.

7. Our CDCs also play a very important role, in reaching out to Singaporeans and residents to tap on SkillsFuture offerings. You have strong networks and strong connections, and you are keenly aware of the needs in your own ground. This was why we launched SkillsFuture Advice in 2017.

1. SkillsFuture Advice is a key partnership between our CDCs and SkillsFuture Singapore.
2. Under this initiative, our CDCs organise workshops to reach out to our residents, provide information on jobs and skills, help them to explore career pathways, and make informed choices about the training that they do.

8. For individuals to benefit from SkillsFuture, we must therefore broaden and strengthen these partnerships.

1. Earlier, Mayor Low announced the partnership between South West CDC and 14 of our training partners to provide more comprehensive support. These are exciting plans.
2. I would encourage more training partners and companies to partner us to reach out to the community. We can do a lot more if we work together.

9. Now, I will talk about SkillsFuture going deeper – what do I mean? Apart from broadening our partnerships, we must also go deeper in providing support and interventions that are more targeted and customised to the individual's learning needs.

1. It was with this in mind that we introduced the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme, for those of us who are mid-career, to pursue substantive training, and we also launched the Careers & Skills Passport that individuals can use to review their skills and curate their own digital resume.
2. In addition, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) publishes jobs-and-skills insights and is enhancing self-help digital tools to help individuals better assess their career goals and skills needs.
3. At the opening of the SkillsFuture Festival earlier this month, I also announced that we will be establishing a new advisory centre within the Lifelong Learning Institute.

10. To complement these efforts, SkillsFuture Advice is moving towards more targeted outreach, with workshops conducted in the neighbourhood and also at specific workplaces.

1. With the support of Lifelong Learning Singapore, our CDCs are stepping up outreach to mid-career individuals, encouraging them to plan their careers, review the needs that they have for skills and to take advantage of the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme to both upskill and, if necessary, to reskill.
2. The Careers & Skills Passport has also been incorporated into SkillsFuture Advice workshops to encourage individuals to make use of this digital repository more effectively.

11. Now, what do I mean by going higher? This refers to delivering higher quality, industry-relevant skills advisory and training, and creating higher impact and value.

1. At the SkillsFuture Festival, I have spoken about our plans to raise the quality of our Adult Educators as well as our Training Providers.
2. We will also strengthen industry relevance and currency of our training through better involvement of employers.
3. These are important and key enablers to achieving better outcomes and higher impact from our SkillsFuture efforts.

12. SkillsFuture Advice has come a long way because of the collective partnership between government and the community. I am encouraged to see them running sector-based SkillsFuture Advice workshops, providing individuals with deeper insights on in-demand jobs and skills.

1. Last year, there were 1,600 of such workshops with content tailored to the needs of specific industries. Around 80,000 individuals participated, of which around 13,000 took action and enrolled in training, using their SkillsFuture Credit, within six months of attending such a workshop.
2. These are very encouraging developments, and demonstrates a resolution to press on after attending the workshops.

13. Our progress so far has been steps in the right direction. I hope Lifelong Learning Singapore and our CDCs can continue to build on this momentum, deepen their partnerships and better serve residents across all our districts, striving for higher as well as greater impact.

14. In closing, as we celebrate 10 years of SkillsFuture and embark on the next phase, I would like to thank our CDCs and our partners for your commitment and support to lifelong learning, and to supporting every worker. The work does not stop here, and together, we can go broader, we can go deeper and we can go higher in our SkillsFuture efforts.

15. I encourage everyone to explore the workshops available and experience the hands-on activities at the festival. Thank you and have a fruitful day ahead!

Thank you.