Mrs Mildred Tan, Chair of SUSS’s Board of Trustees,
Professor Robbie Goh, Provost, SUSS,
Distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
1.Thanks very much to SUSS and the conference organisers for bringing together researchers, educators, practitioners, policymakers and industry partners to exchange ideas on adult learning. Thank you very much for inviting me to join you at the Andragogy for Impact conference.
2.Over the last decade since we launched SkillsFuture, we’ve made great strides in adult learning. Under the SkillsFuture movement, we have widened adults’ access to learning, and our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have expanded the range of Continuing Education and Training (or CET) offerings and made them more accessible to Singaporeans at different stages of life.
3.But the adult learning landscape is shifting very rapidly. AI and other technologies are accelerating change, shortening technology cycles, and reshaping our job roles more quickly. I remember that there was a lot of discussion about the extent to which Google search was going to change learning, not just adult learning, but pedagogy and andragogy. How would our institutions, our professors, our methodologies respond to the idea that each student would have the entire knowledge of the world in their pocket? It felt like a completely disruptive transformation at that time. Today, that is simply a precondition for normal business. We will adapt to transformations just as we have adapted to that transformation. Adults will need to return to learning more often, and each time that they do, the learning has to count. In the next bound of CET, our task is not simply to offer more courses, but to ensure that training that we offer, the experiences that our adult learners undergo, translate into effective learning outcomes.
4.I would like to offer three reflections about how we might think about this:
- First, we have to reinforce adult learning as a new norm. This is at the heart of our SkillsFuture movement here in Singapore. It should be a regular part of working life, not something adults turn to only when they change course.
- Second, we have to reorientate such learning around the needs of adult learners. As an adult, the foundations of your education are there, but we have to build on it in a different way using different strategies, in order to get the outcomes that we need.
- Third, we have to realise the impact of CET and adult learning, enabled by support from industry and employers. I am very happy to see NTUC here as part of that conversation, bringing together industry, employers and employees, looking at how we can think about job redesign and the development of anthropological techniques and platforms in parallel through the various partnerships that we have.
Reinforce Adult Learning as a New Norm
5.There is broad acceptance that education can no longer be concentrated in the first phase of life. We are working for longer, the job roles we hold are evolving, industries are restructuring, and firms are adopting new ways of working. Technology is changing not only the availability of jobs, but also the nature and scope of work within existing jobs. Among firms in Singapore that have adopted AI, 14% have created new AI-related jobs and 19% have redesigned roles.1
6.Many of us will need to learn, unlearn and relearn several times. Those who remain in the same occupation will also need to work differently and acquire capabilities that were not previously part of the job. Adult learning and CET have to be a norm, and there are encouraging signs we are moving in this right direction.
The number of individuals who participated in SkillsFuture-supported training has increased from around 370,000 in 2015 to more than 600,000 in 2025. I hope more Singaporeans will make full use of the support available, from the SkillsFuture Credit to the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme catering for different stages of adulthood.
7.But that first step is also important and not everyone finds it easy to take that step. Some may not be sure where to start, or which path suits them best. Those who need guidance to identify the right programmes can approach our IHLs for education and career guidance, or speak to an advisor at SkillsFuture Advice, which will be renamed Careers and Skills for Community from December. Last year, about 60,000 people attended SkillsFuture Advice sessions, and about 15,000 went on to enrol in a course.2 With the right support, the right advice and encouragement, more adults can learn with confidence, take charge of their careers and make considered choices about what comes next.
Reorientating Learning Around the Needs of Adult Learners
8.Over the years, our IHLs and Training Providers have made CET more accessible. They have introduced flexible modular pathways, recognising prior learning for training, providing bridging where needed, and now there is a range of options across different disciplines.
9.As more adults return to learning, one challenge is in ensuring that trainers are able to build capabilities to teach diverse profiles of learners. Learners differ in work experience, age and stage of life, and in how they learn and what they need from a course. That diversity is only going to increase.
A mid-career professional with years of industry experience will approach a course differently from someone moving into a new field. Teaching must draw on what each learner brings, rather than a design that assumes that everyone starts from the same point.
10.Another challenge is to ensure that adult learners can apply what they learn to address the real-world problems they face at work. The solutioning rarely rests on one person’s expertise alone. As SUSS President Professor Tan Tai Yong, NTU President Professor Ho Teck Hua and I wrote an opinion piece recently, we explained that issues such as climate adaptation and urban planning require people who can draw on knowledge beyond their own field, and work well with others who bring different expertise.3 The key point that we were trying to provoke was that some of these attributes should not be owned exclusively by faculties such as the Sciences or the Humanities. There is a need for a different type of multidisciplinary expertise mindset to bring together people from multiple disciplines, and this is especially so for adult learners. In a class, you will have people from the Science background, from the Humanities background, crossing over into each other’s spaces as they try to develop a new set of integrated skills. It’s different when you are an adult because you don’t have the opportunity to rebuild fundamental skills. You’ve already got some of those biases. Adult learning must therefore help learners not only apply what they know, but also work across boundaries. SUSS’s course on integrating practice in the social service sector is one example. It brings together practitioners from family, eldercare, disability and other services to learn from one another and work better across agencies.
11.Adult educators are key to meeting both challenges. They need to draw on learners’ experiences, connect theory with practice, and create opportunities for application and reflection. SUSS’s Institute for Adult Learning (or IAL) has built up deep expertise in adult education research and in developing adult education practitioners, and IAL can help educators across our institutions and training providers deepen their practice and better support learners at different stages of life.
Realise the Impact of CET and Adult Learning
12.My third point is that we must realise the impact of CET and adult learning. Participation and completion remain important measures. But they do not tell us the full impact of adult learning. We must also ask what changes after a course ends: Can we show that the adult learners gain new capabilities? Can we see that they apply them at work? Can we all benefit when they adapt well, when their work changes again? Achieving this requires partnerships across the ecosystem.
13.Individuals must take charge of their learning, and adult learners must continue to adapt their practice. Employers have an equally important part to play – by investing in their employees and proactively sending them for training to keep pace with changes in their industries. Just as importantly, to create a supportive environment at work, where employees are given opportunities to apply new skills and take on new responsibilities.
14.We also need a stronger evidence base on what works, and in which settings, to guide how we design and fund CET. This is where the Node for Impactful Continuing Education, or NICE, which we are launching today, can make an important contribution. NICE will study the outcomes of CET for working adults and the factors that shape them. It will track learners over time, develop better ways to measure how training translates into outcomes such as employability, and identify how adult learning can be tailored for different sectors and workplace contexts. These insights will inform CET programmes and policies. I encourage NICE to work closely with IAL, so that these insights reach those who design and deliver adult learning.
Conclusion
15.The SkillsFuture movement has built a strong foundation for adult learning over the past decade. SUSS, together with IAL, has played an important part in this, serving adult learners and building up the practice of adult education.
16.As we enter the next bound of CET, let us build on this foundation, by reinforcing adult learning as a norm, reorientating it around the needs of adult learners; and realising its impact with the support of employers and partners across the system.
17.Congratulations to SUSS on the launch of NICE, and I wish everyone a fruitful conference.
18.Thank you.
Footnotes
- Source: MOM Occasional Paper on Artificial Intelligence adoption among firms (Apr 2026).
- These figures were reported in a Straits Times article on the SkillsFuture Festival @ South West, where Minister was the Guest of Honour.
- The article is linked here for SMS’s reference: What do an engineer, a physician and a historian have in common? | The Straits Times. While the focus was on interdisciplinary learning in PET, the point on working across disciplines is equally relevant to adult learners.