Guest-Of-Honour Remarks by Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary at the SMU Resilient Workforces Symposium "Shaping the Future of Learning and Work in the Age of AI"

Professor Alan Chan, Provost, SMU

Distinguished Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen

1. Good morning.

1. I am happy to join you today at SMU's Resilient Workforces Symposium, to discuss how we can shape the future of learning and work in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
2. This is an important issue that not just Singapore, but all societies, the whole world is grappling with.
3. To complement today's symposium discussion on the academic approaches and research considerations, I would like to sketch out what the Government is already doing in the education space, in that interface between education and industry, between the learners and the workforce that they are going into. I would like to thank SMU and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (MIT SMART) for bringing together experts in research, industry, and in policy to discuss and generate new ideas over the next two days.

AI Transforms the World of Work

2. The jobs and industries we have here in Singapore, they are already being disrupted. They are already being transformed as technologies develop very rapidly.

1. Even for the same job, the same job description, the same person, the skills needed to do that task and to do that job well have indeed changed. When it comes to the job of a programmer for coding, coding can be fully generated with AI in a fraction of the time it once took. Employers now naturally expect entry-level software developers to not only code, but to do so more efficiently using these AI tools and combining these AI tools with an application of domain-specific knowledge. So now, to be a software programmer, the coding techniques are insufficient. You have to have the coding techniques, the use of the best-in-class tools and domain-specific knowledge to keep doing the same job that you were previously good at.
2. Beyond coding, generative AI is also shifting the way we approach knowledge work, in areas like finance and law. These are domains where the direct knowledge of how AI can affect the task of a domain expert becomes necessary.

3. But in all this, there are new opportunities being created and new opportunities to be seized. This is not a theoretical statement. This is not an aspirational statement. It is informed by our historical experience here in Singapore.

1. So local, contextual, historical, recent experience tell us that previous waves of technology have indeed created new jobs and new industries, and AI will similarly create new opportunities for workers world-wide.
2. We are already seeing jobs around the ethical and effective use of AI emerge, like ethics specialists who ensure AI models are free of embedded biases. And there will be other new jobs that we cannot even imagine today. And this is indeed the lived experience of the workforce that has gone through previous waves of technologically-mediated disruption.
3. Our ability to harness new technologies can also enable solutions to some of the pressing issues that we face today. In our ageing society, our technologies can provide better, personalised health care, enable early, timely interventions, easing the burden on caregivers and healthcare systems.
4. So, the key to riding a wave of technological disruption, seizing the new opportunities and applying that new technology to emerging or existing problems, rests on our ability to educate, our ability to learn, to relearn, to develop new skills and upskill.

4. What are we doing to harness these opportunities? How are we making sure that every worker, every student will learn about AI and develop foundational digital literacy and AI skills?

1. Our school curriculum in Singapore strengthens the development of AI literacy by addressing what our students should know about AI, how they should use it, and how they can learn with it. So disaggregating the problem into three parts, what you should know, how to apply it, and then how to improve the learning using these tools. Rather than teaching AI as a standalone subject, learning about AI and how to tap on it to deepen learning across the various subjects allow students to apply AI practically, in a timely manner, and in tandem with the latest AI developments.
2. We also make compulsory core modules available for our Institutes of Higher Learning, foundational modules on AI, and AI literacy. All Year 1 ITE students attend AI Singapore's 'AI for Everyone' programme, regardless of their course of study.

5. But this is just the first step. Foundational AI literacy and foundational AI exposure is just the first step. It is also important to be able to apply AI in specific contexts and domains.

1. Within our institutions, we provide our students with hands-on exposure to industry-focused applications of AI. Media students in our polytechnics use generative AI tools like Adobe Firefly and Midjourney, optimising their content creation workloads. Infocomm students develop programmes using AI-enabled coding tools like GitHub Copilot. We want our students to arrive in the workforce already having had this experience and ready to go, as that is the expectation of the employers.
2. One of the things that we have learnt is that our institutions' value to us is their tight integration with industry - that industry collaboration with leading tech firms, providing students with up-to-date and industry relevant learning is essential. For example, Dell Technologies has partnered five institutions, across our ITE, polytechnics, and our universities — including SMU — to enhance curricula with in-demand digital skills and industry exposure, to build expertise in new and emerging technologies including AI. These tight links between industry and our education space must continue, must deepen, and we have to explore where are the gaps that we need to fill as new technologies and opportunities emerge.
3. For those who are already in the workforce, we have a whole agency dedicated to reskilling and upskilling - SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG). It already supports over 1,500 courses related to AI across a range of industries. So that's a whole series of structures and processes and relationships, from school to undergraduate to continuing adult education.

6. Becoming AI-ready as a society requires us to learn beyond AI. In an AI-pervasive future, possessing core critical-thinking and problem-solving skills will be what differentiates our workers and lead to the kind of resilience that your seminar and your discussions today are most concerned about. These are the essential skills for our learners and workers today.

1. As more tasks are being automated by AI, the delta that we will have to then apply as the human in the loop, the value-add as the worker rather than the tool, is precisely that – our human-ness. This is often captured by the label of "soft skills". As a former medical educator, I have to say that the term "soft skills" causes an allergic reaction. I spent quite a lot of time explaining to my students that their "hard skills" in the sciences need to be matched by equally important skills in curiosity, communication and collaboration. These skills need to be thought of as just as valuable as the technical cognitive skills.
2. These skills will give us an edge as workers not just in AI, but in thinking about resilience when the next technological wave of disruption comes, and we have to assume that that is not far away given the pace of technological developments that is powered by the AI tools that we see today.
3. Today, our school system equips our students with these types of skills through the development of 21st Century Competencies. Our IHLs build on this foundation by inculcating LifeSkills into their curriculum and programmes.

AI Transforms Teaching & Learning

7. I have spoken about how students and workers in our system can adapt to the impact of AI on the work and workforce. I also want to then touch on how we can use AI to teach better, though I will not belabour the point as you will be hearing more from the experts over the course of this symposium.

8. We are already seeing AI being used by educators to tailor their instruction to student needs and industry contexts.

1. We have a product called the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS). Some of you may be parents with children in our general education system, and you will know that this is the platform that they use to access resources, as well as submit their answers and their quizzes. And this, in case you were not aware, already has AI-powered features built in. Today, our teachers design customised learning experiences, they instantaneously analyse the students learning responses, and it allows them then to make data-informed teaching and learning decisions.
2. At the other end of education, in our IHLs, AI-based technology allows instructors to enhance their teaching of domain-specific skills. An area that is close to my heart is medical education. We had conventionally used role play as a teaching modality. We continue to do so, but now we can also do this using AI-powered virtual simulations, AI-powered technology, and have the medical students grapple with clinical skills like delivering a baby, or conducting an eye examination, doing all these within the safety of a customisable, AI-powered virtual simulation. The professors and the academics in the audience will know that the greatest value is the ability for that AI platform to analyse the behaviour and provide targeted feedback relevant to that specific learner.
3. Here at SMU, I am glad that faculty are tapping on SMU's AI-powered course feedback system, analysing student feedback, to provide actionable insights to improve their course delivery, for both regular students as well as adult learners.

A Collective Call to Action

9. Given all of this, more broadly, what can all of us do? Each of us individuals, businesses, or institutions — we all have a part to play in supporting the workforce and helping us all to adapt and thrive in this new environment. And as the Government, we are committed to walking alongside this journey with you, building upon the strong foundation that we have established over the past decade to support lifelong learning.

10. Keeping up with technological changes today and evolving industry needs is no longer optional – it is essential if individuals want to stay relevant and resilient in the workforce.

1. We recently launched Career Health SG, a joint initiative by Ministry of Manpower, Workforce Singapore and SkillsFuture Singapore. It empowers Singaporeans to proactively take charge of their career decisions, bringing together an aggregation of skills, qualifications, upskilling opportunities and job opportunities, supporting individuals to better access insights on growth jobs and industries, helping them to decide on career moves and the skills that they need to meet their career aspirations.

11. For businesses, they also must transform to seize new opportunities. It is also in their interest to invest in their workforce to help them remain competitive.

1. Resilient companies are those that can ride the waves of change and actively upskill their workforce. They take a progressive and long-term view of building up their talent pipeline. So historically, being a resilient company was adapting your business processes, changing your service delivery, looking for opportunities. Those will continue, but increasingly, to be a resilient business is about having an adaptive workforce.
2. Employers can tap on support from industry intermediaries in order to do this. We have a category of SkillsFuture Queen Bees and Skills Development Partners, who provide advisory and sector-specific training helping to transform their workforce and bridge skills gaps. We welcome the industry partners here today to join us if you are interested in being part of this process of supporting your industry, supporting your industry ecosystem, and becoming a Queen Bee or a Skills Development Partner, especially if you as an employer, are already skilled at providing some of this adaptive training to your workforce.

12. And for our institutions of higher learning, beyond education and training, you have an important role to play in contributing to research.

1. I am heartened that SMU has identified "workforce resilience" as a research priority, and will be studying this issue at various levels - at the individual-machine interface, organisational level, and at the societal level.
2. But the research is grounded in real-world applications. I'm very happy to hear that as you're developing these models, identifying the frameworks and asking yourself how to take the research agenda forward, it is grounded in real world applications. SMU and MIT SMART have actively sought out and established partnerships with organisations such as Changi Airport Group and Mendaki - two examples demonstrating the diversity of established partnerships. These partners provide SMU with problem statements that arise in their day-to-day work, so that research outcomes will be better tied to real impact.

13. I am confident that the conversations over the next two days will contribute to our understanding of technology, lifelong learning, and the future of work.

14. As I conclude, I extend my congratulations to SMU on your 25th anniversary, and to both SMU and MIT SMART on their exciting research collaborations. I look forward to seeing how thes emergent ideas shape our policy and practice in the years ahead.

15. Thank you very much.