Applied Study in Polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education Review (ASPIRE)

Mr Thomas Chua Kee Seng (Nominated Member) (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Mdm Speaker, fellow Members of Parliament, good afternoon! Firstly, I would like to declare that I am the President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chairman and Managing Director of Teckwah Industrial Corporation. Today, I would like to speak about improving the technical education from the business viewpoint.

Last month, the Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review (ASPIRE) Committee made 10 recommendations to transform our vocational education. I have discussed this with the business community and we are all very pleased to learn about this. The shortage of local skilled workers has been in existence for much too long and this improvement can be said to be a welcome rain after a protracted drought.

Many SMEs, especially those in traditional industries, rely on a pool of skilled, experienced and loyal older workers to be responsible for their operations. Although they have tried all means, it is extremely difficult to attract the young generation into their industries. They have no choice but to impart the skills to foreign workers. Once the foreign workers leave, there is a vacuum in the pool of skilled workers. Currently, this is a serious human resource problem confronting our local SMEs. We are thus very supportive that the Government is embarking on improving our vocational education, to help enterprises groom a pool of skilled workers.

However, in the composition of the ASPIRE Committee, business representatives practically all come from large corporations and MNCs, and there are no SMEs or traditional industries among them. When we look at the name list of the Committee members, SMEs begin to worry that in revising the course curriculum, planning for internship and so on, SMEs' needs may not be considered. Young people would only see large corporations in the newspapers' limelight; they will thus be inclined to join these large companies and not be

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willing to join SMEs.

Singapore faces a manpower shortage. The pool of young people is like a cake, which every industry is eyeing. Large corporations and MNCs have big appetite and very strong appeal. Very quickly, this cake would be entirely eaten up by them. In view of this, I urge industry and trade associations to collaborate closely with ASPIRE, and actively inform the Committee of the needs of your industries and manpower requirements, and participate in the process of enhancing vocational education. Only by engaging actively in the process can SMEs receive the attention you need.

Looking through the report, with regard to Recommendation 7 on launching the Place-and-Train programme, and under point 4.6 on page 29, it clearly states that Polytechnic and ITE graduates would be matched to progressive employers committed to support the internship programme. Therefore, SMEs and industry associations need to act fast.

At the same time, I also urge the Government that when reviewing the vocational education system, it could devote special attention to the SMEs. Implementing the Place-and-Train programme requires companies to make certain adjustments in their human resource management policies. Compared to large corporations, SMEs are considerably weaker in this regard. However, they could integrate resources through their industry and trade associations. I hope the Government could consider rolling out related assistance schemes to ensure that local SMEs do not miss out on the chance to participate.

Transforming vocational education is an arduous journey that would benefit both the nation and the people. I believe that under the Government's able leadership and with the hard work of the tripartite partners, we would be assured of creating a career pathway for our young people which will allow them to fulfil their potentials!

On this note, I support the Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review report.

Mdm Speaker, thank you very much for allowing me to join this debate. I fully support the recommendations of the ASPIRE Committee's report and the Motion before us.

To the Labour Movement, a better future for Singaporeans must include good prospects for Singaporeans to get good jobs and to enjoy an improving standard of living. And for that to happen, good jobs must be created in the first place in Singapore, and then Singaporeans must have the aptitudes and competencies needed to take on those good jobs.

Indeed, the two are inter-linked. If companies find that Singaporeans do not have the competencies needed for the better jobs that they intend to create – and here it applies to companies both big and small, MNCs and SMEs – then they find less reason to create those jobs in Singapore or to bring those better jobs into Singapore. So, the ability and the availability of skilled manpower and talent are very critical to ensuring the availability and the creation of good jobs in Singapore and that better future for Singaporean workers and Singaporeans.

Should that be a worry for us? Could there possibly, potentially, be not enough Singaporeans with relevant competencies to attract or to undertake and to anchor these better jobs for the future?

I think it is possible and I can think of a number of possibilities of why that might happen.

One challenge would be our small population and our low fertility. There may be a constraint in sheer lack of numbers, though, to some extent, progress in our efforts to improve job design, value-add and total productivity will help to ameliorate the challenge.

But for the students that we do have, there could also be challenges because students could be studying courses that mismatch with industry needs, or because the industry needs change and their catch-up process in terms of what is being taught to the students is not quick enough.

Students may also choose to work in industries that need competencies that are totally different from their course of study. So, they study in one thing but they choose to work in

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a different line. All that investment does not convert into value.

Companies also may be part of the problem because some companies may not be able to retain the workers by providing challenging work, competitive rewards or attractive prospects. So, even if they have the right students coming to work for them, they do not keep them long enough. And, again, they lose the experience.

In other words, if we are already short of people, we really, as a country, cannot afford to waste anyone, waste the talent or the skill, through any sub-optimal matching of training and work requirements, or through the premature loss of talent and skilled personnel.

It is, therefore, imperative that we "Teach Right, Learn Right, Work Right and Reward Right". I believe that if we do these four things right, we will then put ourselves on a virtuous cycle of skills building, value creation, good rewards and, eventually, ever improving living standards.

In this regard, I welcome and support the recommendations of the ASPIRE Committee as they seek to strengthen our ability to cut waste and maximise value with respect to students studying and working in relevant and related areas.

I think that for the full value of the ASPIRE report to be realised, we must focus on three critical points.

The first one is the link between "Teach Right" and "Learn Right". This is about ensuring that courses of study being offered are themselves valuable and relevant to current and emerging industry needs, and also in helping students choose the right course of study that best fits their talent, their aspirations and their abilities.

This is conceptually easy to understand, but it is actually not easy to put into practice correctly and continuously because there are many different parts that are moving. To articulate them and to synchronise them will be challenging. But it is a very important part for this enhanced capability to link between the ITE, the Polytechnics on the one hand, and industry on the other, in order for both sides to better understand the job requirements and the job opportunities, and also the training that must be put in place to link the two. This must be properly resourced and carefully built up.

The second link is that between "Learn Right" and "Work Right". This part concerns the workplace. In today's reality, lifelong learning and lifelong updating of knowledge and skills are not just nice add-ons for those people with extraordinary aspirations. In fact, it is a basic action: for all workers, in order to preserve employability for themselves; and for companies,

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in order to preserve their competitiveness.

The better Singapore is at ensuring updating and relevance of skills, the more resilient and attractive our workforce and economy would be for the future. This is precisely why the Labour Movement is very keen. This is at the core of the future of our workers.

Thus, it is vital that substantial attention be paid to, and significant investments be made in Continuing Education and Training (CET). An ideal CET system would be one with strong institutions and service providers within itself, that these providers are able to train, upgrade, retrain and match and rematch workers efficiently into good and well-fitting jobs. It must also be one that interacts actively with education institutions in a two-way loop to mutually update and upgrade on needs and capability-building. When that happens consistently and pervasively, then the investments of time, effort and money that each person and the country put into pre-employment education will yield a longer stream of good returns throughout a person's working years and will not be wasted mid-stream.

In this regard, the Labour Movement fully supports the proposed improvement to ITEs and Polytechnics in strengthening the industrial link through purpose-focused internships and Place-and-Train programmes. We also support the enhancement in the capability to provide more accurate and timely job-market information and also job counselling.

I would just like to also quote an example with regard to how companies and the education institutions can work closely together in order to make this happen. Here, I quote the example of Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce has a longstanding relationship with Singapore, and when they decided to invest in an Asian-based production plant for their state-of-the-art Trent engines, they chose Singapore, and we are very glad for that.

While Singapore had offered Rolls-Royce more than production infrastructure, Rolls-Royce, at the point of investment, was concerned about the possible lack of skilled technicians with the expertise to produce the aircraft engines. In order to meet their requirements for these skilled technicians, Rolls-Royce worked with our Polytechnics and ITEs to design courses on aero-engineering, and the students in these programmes were given the opportunity to intern with Rolls-Royce at their Seletar campus in order to deepen their understanding with regard to the production process. Many of those who subsequently graduated from their programme were employed by Rolls-Royce as technicians and engineers and enjoyed good career prospects. This is a good example of how industry and our local Institutes of Higher Learning can jointly co-create certification programmes to meet an emerging, ongoing or expanding industrial need.

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The benefits of such partnerships are, indeed, two-fold. First, that these tertiary academic programmes are structured based on in-depth consultation with industry players, and that these programmes are, therefore, highly relevant to the real needs of industry and are able to produce graduates who are immediately employable. These industry-sponsored programmes offer also our diploma and ITE graduates the opportunity to undergo structured training and internships which are aligned and value-add to their tertiary education.

But after a person starts work within the workspace, then we talk about CET. Here, also, we have strong frameworks and entities, such as the Devan Nair Institute of Employment and Employability (DNI) which is run by NTUC's e2i, the WDA-run Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI), the modular Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) upgrading framework, the numerous industry-focused union clusters at the NTUC and their counterparts at SNEF, and many strong industry-based skills and capacity-enhancing entities. Some of these are already creating value. My point is, as we do and improve things from the schooling end, we should tap fully the CET part of the eco-system and join the two up in a very seamless way.

Just to give an example, it is a real challenge faced by companies in the electronics industry to find and keep skilled personnel. This particular challenge is felt, for example, by the wafer fabrication industry. It is made all the harder by intense international competition and fast-changing technology inherent in that industry. There are also issues of intellectual property protection that companies need to address.

All that, when unresolved, became hurdles to industry development as each company tries to address its own manpower shortages by attracting people from other companies, otherwise known as poaching from one another. Such action does not grow the pool of skilled personnel, but just intensifies job switching and create a wage cost spiral.

Through the hard work and partnership of various players – companies in the wafer fabrication industry and subsequently in the different WSQ, those in the Assembly and Test industry, the union in this industry which is the United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries, the WDA and EDB – barriers were overcomed and industry-wide WSQ upgrading frameworks were then put in place.

As a result, hundreds have already graduated through that process and thousands more stand to benefit from structured training that will upgrade their competencies for which they are certified and ways in which these competencies are recognised industry-wide and receive recognition and have market value. The companies benefit from a more stable and expanding pool of manpower and the people who graduate from these programmes see better prospects as well. There are many advantages.

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These entities and capabilities across different industries must be fully harnessed to work in tandem with the ASPIRE initiatives for the best and smoothest overall outcome for Singapore and Singaporeans.

Third, the link between "Work Right" and "Reward Right". The most advanced car wash that will give the car the best and most lasting shine is of no use if there are no cars going through the car wash. The best intentions of the ASPIRE report will come to nought if there is poor follow-through at the workplace, or if companies are not able to or not doing their best to retain or to upgrade the talent, skills and experience of their workforce.

To guard against this, aside from ensuring that the CET system and players are proficient and proactive, there is also an important role for Government agencies and industry associations spearheading the development of the different sectors, and industries must also proactively paint exciting visions for their industries to catch the attention of students, parents and workers seeking better futures. Yet another key ingredient is the role of management in using, motivating, rewarding, retaining and developing their scarce manpower truly as assets.

In this respect, there is another area of potential waste that we must look at and avoid. Some employers view paper qualifications as a proxy for a person's capability at the point of recruitment, and progress thereafter depends on the person's performance, value-add and demonstrated potential to advance. Then there are others who rigidly destine a person's ability to advance within their companies and organisations, largely on the basis of their paper qualifications at the point of entry, sometimes almost to the extent of running a caste system of sorts.

We must be quite clear about this. Having a degree is not itself an entitlement to career success. Likewise, not having a degree is also not a sure-fire way to job success. Success ultimately rests on outcomes and is built on integrity, initiative, competence, contribution, determination and adaptability. In other words, merit. So, you have got to deliver that value, whether you have a degree or not.

Having a degree is not a guarantee and, obviously, given the need for Singapore to make the best of every person that we have, we must strongly encourage all employers to design and see to career progression based on merit, and to remove glass ceilings. In this way, companies allow themselves the biggest possible pool of talent and contributors to develop and tap, while all workers have the chance to advance by proving their worth through their performance and merit.

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This will, in turn, make the best use of the enhanced education and CET eco-systems to develop workers with better and more relevant skills to meet the demands of the better jobs that we hope to create and bring in.

The Tripartite Committee to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam will, thus, have a critical role to play to bring all these pieces together into a coherent, working whole. We must make this work so that Singaporeans can and will look forward to a better, brighter future at work for themselves and their children.

With a clear mission and road map, strong tripartism and progressive industrial relations, I think we are ready for the journey. Mdm Speaker, I support the Motion.

Madam, I share the view of the Committee that education is very important to Singaporeans who see it as a key to unlocking the opportunities in life and securing a good future. Over the past weeks and months, a case had been made that applied education can be as viable a pathway as a University education. But in order for this notion to gain traction among our young minds and worried parents, narrow societal mindsets have to evolve, and the objectives, as set forth by the Committee in the ASPIRE report, should be embraced by the public at large.

Madam, Members in this House acknowledged that there is a need for a fundamental review of the prevailing assumption in education today, key of which is the definition of success in Singapore society today and the parameters that operate under this assumption.

For years, our society has been socialised to view a University degree as the sole means to an end – career success and economic progress in life. The Committee has taken a step forward in trying to shape and reframe existing attitudes and prevailing mindsets. We should welcome that.

The Committee has conceived a different approach to the viewing of success and progress in Singapore society, and I believe their painstaking intents, as illustrated in the report through the various recommendations, can be realised. Indeed, the shifting of mindset is no doubt an uphill and tedious task, one that requires constant calibration and adaptation. The Government, through the ASPIRE report, has taken the lead in the reframing of mindsets. The direction, as set forth, should be complemented with efforts on the part of employers and industry players to realign their work processes and resynchronise their organisations' objectives and outcomes.

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At the same time, parents and students have their respective roles to play in this brave new world. Parents should continue to remain engaged with their children's future while simultaneously providing adequate space for them to pursue their own interests and aspirations. I see the role of a parent more as a cheerleader rather than as a director. The student himself is the director of his hopes and dreams in life. As a society, we should encourage our young minds to strive for the best with the skills they have been equipped with. Thus, parents play a fine balancing act between expressing concern for their children's future, providing them with autonomy to empower themselves at critical decision-making points in their academic and career junctures.

Madam, for the student to better empower himself and exercise the confidence invested in him by his parents, he needs to actively inform himself with the academic and career information provided to him and immerse himself in the world beyond our shores. On this note, I would like to encourage students to step out of their comfort zones, away from the paternal culture prevalent in our education system today. It is hoped that, without the shackles of a narrow societal mindset in which one's value and contribution are solely based on University paper qualifications, the student can better express himself with greater gumption, creativity and entrepreneurial tenacity and, in doing so, start towards the future that he envisions for himself and his loved ones.

To this end, I hope that in the not-too-distant future, applied education can be as rewarding and fulfilling as a University degree. Both would be recognised, appreciated and encouraged by members in our society.

Madam, in this next section, I will be touching on some of the recommendations that have been put forth in the report and provide some of my views and inputs.

As a Member of this House, I support the recommendation to strengthen and coordinate Education and Career Guidance (ECG) efforts as part of an integrated National ECG Framework, in particular, the brand of end-to-end ECG, as laid out in para 2.7 of the ASPIRE report.

Making a well-informed choice is paramount. A comprehensive and continuous education and career guide in schools and institutions can have a rewarding outcome, especially considering that decisions on education options and clear opportunities can be a rather complex and risky process.

On this, I would like to suggest that the Government include the administering of psychometric tests as part of the initiative in strengthening the ECG framework. Conducting psychometric tests, such as the DISC personality assessment, will enable students to develop

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a better understanding of their attributes, the special qualities that they possess and an honest reflection of their own weaknesses. An in-depth awareness of oneself will enable him to better tailor his education with his career decisions. Psychometric tests, as part of the national ECG framework, would certainly be helpful for the students in the long term.

Additionally, I hope that the system can be set in place to encourage the active involvement of parents in the planning of their child's educational progression and subsequent career prospects. Invitation to parents to attend ECG sessions at the Secondary school level should be seriously considered. In the report, it was stated that 62% and 49% of the Polytechnic and ITE students surveyed cited parents as one of their top three influences in choosing their course of study. Clearly, parents have a disproportionate influence on their child's mindset and thought processes. Thus, they need to be well-equipped to provide the necessary advice and opinions to their own child. In doing so, it would also provide parents with a realistic and rational perspective to their child's academic potential and their accompanying career opportunities.

Madam, as part of the effort to strengthen education and training in Polytechnics and ITEs, it was highlighted in para 3.2.2 that there is a need for Polytechnics and ITEs to provide more development and support programmes to help every student succeed, no matter what his or her circumstances may be.

On this, I would like to suggest that the Government consider strengthening the links and partnership between the Family Service Centres and the Student Affairs Centres and Counselling and Wellness Centres in Polytechnics and ITEs. These would not only ensure prompt and ready assistance, financial or otherwise, whenever needed, but it would also allow cases to reflect earlier and symptoms better addressed. Such an arrangement would be beneficial to enhancing the social and emotional competencies of the students as they navigate the consequences of their decisions. Madam, in Malay, please.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] I agree with the ASPIRE Committee's view that education is very important to Singaporeans where education is key to unlock opportunities in life and guarantee a good and bright future. There were recent discussions and efforts made to raise the awareness that success in life is not necessarily achieved through University education but, in fact, applied education or education via the Polytechnic and ITE route can also unlock opportunities for similar success. This is the objective that the Government wants to realise through the 10 recommendations or proposals contained in the ASPIRE Review Committee report.

The change that the ASPIRE report wants to make is to give more recognition, and also to provide career progression and success to Polytechnic and ITE graduates. This is a good step and it should be supported, and it needs the involvement of everyone who has to play

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their role to achieve this objective.

Madam, all along, Singaporeans have been inculcated with the paradigm or mindset that University education is the only way to achieve success and progression in their careers and lives. A mindset change must be made if we wish to achieve the objectives set out by ASPIRE. The Government has taken the first step by initiating a mindset change through ASPIRE and all of us should take the next step to give support so that we, as a society, can work together in this effort and, together, achieve the objective of giving more recognition and also providing career progression and success to Polytechnic and ITE graduates.

Madam, in my English speech earlier, I touched on and gave my viewpoints on two recommendations from the ASPIRE Committee. Here, I would like to touch on two more recommendations from the ASPIRE report.

Firstly, it is about increasing opportunities for NITEC graduates to continue their studies to Higher NITEC.

This is a positive step, especially for the Malay community, because we have a rather large number of students who are studying in NITEC courses in the ITEs. I hope that Malay students can take advantage of the opportunity that will be made available. This pathway will not only increase skills and knowledge, but it will also present a better chance for students to continue their studies in the Polytechnics.

Madam, another recommendation that I would like to touch on is the recommendation on having collaboration between the Polytechnics and ITEs with MINDEF and MHA. The focus of this collaboration is to enable the Polytechnic and ITE graduates to be given vocations that are related to their course of study while they are undergoing National Service. This is to ensure that these graduates not only retain their skills and knowledge that they have gained but, at the same time, they would also gain practical experience and knowledge that are relevant to their course of study. The recommendation to give accreditation is also a good initiative. This effort is akin to the Malay saying "while diving, you drink the water" where many benefits can be gained while undergoing National Service. My hope is that this recommendation can be implemented well and fairly so that each ITE and Polytechnic graduate will be given equal opportunity, regardless of race or religion, especially the chance to serve in the Air Force or the Navy of the Republic of Singapore.

(In English): In conclusion, the ASPIRE report crafts a worthy vision – difficult though it may be – for the type of society Singapore is to aspire to as we enter the 50th year of our nation's Independence.

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University education remains important and, for students who are academically able, no efforts should be spared to ensure that they receive a world-class University education. However, there is also a need for Singapore and Singaporeans to deepen our zeal to enhance technical competency and uphold alternative pathways to success. In the years ahead of us, the composition and profiles of parliamentarians in this House can, in fact, serve as a good litmus test as to how much our society has come in recognising the value of applied education vis-a-vis a University degree. I believe, to have Prime Ministers, Chiefs in the Singapore Armed Forces, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Civil Service from the Polytechnic or ITE route is not only a worthy aspiration, but it can be a practical reality in the not-too-distant future.

In this regard, I hope that this national effort to improve the prospects of Polytechnic and ITE graduates can, in the longer term, expand and enrich the mindsets of our political leaders and allow this to translate into greater diversity in our leaders' perspective on talent and the recognition of success in our political discourse and the employment of talents in our Civil Service. Politics and Singapore can only benefit from the paradigm shift that this report attempts to encourage in our education system. Madam, I support the Motion.

Mdm Speaker, the recommendations from the ASPIRE Committee come at a timely moment when our technical and vocational institutions and courses are becoming more prolific and popular among our young Singaporeans. Confucius, as a revered educator, abided by a principle that has been lauded since ancient times, if you would allow me to pronounce it: "因材施教". It means to teach students in accordance with their ability or aptitude. Indeed, this is a good principle for us to take note of.

In recent times, we have been improving in this aspect. From sports, to cooking, to marine, our training and education landscape has, in conjunction with the trainers and educators, conjured a variety of quality training courses to serve the growing needs of our young people who find themselves more at ease with technical education and vocational training, in contrast to the conventional academic lessons in class. We must continue to help these students stretch their potential to the fullest. It is not only beneficial for their aspirations, but also for the progress of our country.

Mdm Speaker, allow me to highlight why I believe that technical education and vocational training were instrumental to our phenomenal growth and success in the past 50 years and why they are still key and so vital for our future.

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Madam, in the early days when we were still a young nation, University and even our Junior College admission was almost an unattainable goal for many. In a whole kampong or even block of flats, there was only one or maybe none of these graduates. And he or she will be the buzz among the neighbours. Only a very small percentage of our population had a high level education qualification. For the rest of the population, it was primarily about getting basic education, skills and work.

Technical education, vocational training and on-the-job training were the main routes for many after Secondary school and Primary school. I was told that during the days when the British Forces were still stationed here, they even recruited students who were doing their Secondary 2 to join their vocational and technical training scheme. Their education would be taken care of and they would even be paid for on-the-job training. For those who did not sign up for the British dockyard training scheme, education was focused on the needs of the industry. Students would receive hands-on training which would help them get specific jobs when they leave school.

Then, Singapore took a different route in its economic policy after gaining Independence. We realised that foreign investment was crucial for our nation building and economic prosperity. To attract investors, we needed a more skilled workforce. Educating and training our population became a key national policy for growth.

To quickly support this rapid growth strategy, we needed to supplement the long-term education objectives with the growing demands for manpower for industry growth. I think, back then, EDB realised this and EDB started several dedicated training centres and programmes. The Manpower and Training Unit was established to focus on industrial training within Singapore. The Overseas Training Programme and Joint Government Training Centres saw many young Singaporean workers being placed in apprenticeship programmes in countries like India, Holland and Germany to learn and improve on their skills. In the marine industry, many young Singaporeans had to undergo on-the-job training and other training programmes to be groomed into skilled draftsmen, technicians and welders, more for the shipyards. The money was very good, especially for welders, because the shipbuilding industry was booming fast. Some even went to work in the Middle East and were paid even better wages in US dollars.

As we move to value-add industries, I think our economic policy also changed, and EDB started a specialised institute to accelerate manpower development for new industries. Three institutions, in partnership with three developed nations famed for their technological advancement, were established. They were the German-Singapore Institute for Precision and Manufacturing, Japan-Singapore Institute for Software Technology and the French-Singapore Institute for Electronic and Control Systems. Our technologies were groomed in these institutes for the industries and a new term called "the teaching factory" was coined

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for these specialised institutes. I was the product of one of these specialised institutes.

We had to develop this trained skilled workforce for the needs of the rapidly growing industry and companies that had set up their operations in Singapore. All this was happening in parallel as we complement the supply of certificate and diploma holders who were trained in the Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore Technical Institute and the then VITB, all of which continue to exist in mainstream education until today in the form of the five Polytechnics and the three colleges of the ITE.

The trip down memory lane serves as a reminder that industrial training was fundamental to the success we enjoy today. We must not forget it. And we must not ditch it. Paper qualifications are not the only way to move forward or upwards. Not everyone is academically inclined. Some of us are just gifted with the abilities to use our hands and brains in the application of tools and skills.

The objective of wanting to uplift the overall image and value of technical education and vocational training as a viable and attractive path for sustainable progress and development of our students and employees is a correct and noble one. I am in full support of the ASPIRE Committee's recommendations.

Having said that, Madam, I am also aware that the paper chase culture that we have in Singapore is quite entrenched and it will take some time for mindsets to change and take shape. Logic and rationale tell us that non-graduates who do not have paper credentials or qualifications should not be denied recognition and opportunities to move up the career ladder when they are clearly equipped with the relevant skills and experience. But is that ideal thought translated into real life practice in the industry?

We should ask these hard questions of all our employers. Every now and then, we hear of good stories of ITE graduates and Polytechnic graduates who rise up to hold key positions in industries. The key reason why these stories are good and interesting is because they are not the norm but the exception. I believe more needs to be done to change the mindset on how we value our workers and their contribution beyond their qualifications. Thus, the work of the ASPIRE Committee and the follow-up implementation are very important.

On the other hand, we should not also send the wrong message that all levels of University qualification are not important. There need to be a more holistic and balanced views of path of progress and development towards success. We are not saying that our graduates, after years of slogging for a degree, now have come to nought. Academic abilities are important but they must also be pegged with relevant practical skills. You must be able to value and recognise the importance of practical and implementable skill sets. It is pointless

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to have a degree in business when you do not actually have practical knowledge and skills to run a business. Or, what good is an architect if there are no welders, artisans, draughtsmen, bricklayers, to put his ideas into reality? Thus, we must value workers for their contribution and service but not only their paper qualifications.

Mdm Speaker, another point that I would like to highlight is the vital link between training and industry. The link between the industry and training must be of high relevancy, and it must also be seamless. Training should eventually contribute to the industry and one's job. Lifelong learning and upgrading opportunities should not be about getting a higher or better qualification for the sake of the paper chase. There should also be upgrading opportunities for specialised skills and craftsmanship. Workers should be incentivised and motivated to go for such upgrading of skills. Specialisation and craftsmanship should be properly rewarded and recognised. Over time, society and community will begin to understand the value of these highly regarded jobs and skills.

Let me raise an example in the form of vocational training in Germany, a country which, I believe, is widely respected for having a skilled and efficient workforce, strong economy and advanced technology. In Germany, training for vocations is usually done by a dual programme of training and theoretical education. Students work three or four days a week at a partner company as apprentices or interns. The remaining one or two days are spent doing theory lessons in school. This apprenticeship lasts about two to three or three-and-a-half years.

This is different from our education system whereby students are generally spending only a short portion of their education on internship or dedicating several modules to the classroom and just one module for the internship. Moreover, some of these internships are sought out by the students themselves, who have little knowledge about the industry or even their very own desired career path and wind up in the wrong company doing something totally different or irrelevant.

I hope the Government will put more emphasis on internships so that these attachments are really hands-on learning experiences and not just another excursion in the course of a study programme.

Mdm Speaker, a senior officer in the hotel industry who was part of the ASPIRE Committee told me this, and I quote him, "It is all about hard work, positive attitude and undying passion in what you love to do and to dream big. It is an uphill task to change the mindset of parents that it is not just about paper chase. We want the dual study-work programme to succeed but it will take some time." I agree with him, and I think we must believe that these changes that we see in the ASPIRE's recommendations are for the better

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and we must stay on course with this strategy. Mdm Speaker, in Malay, please.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] One of the recommendations made by the ASPIRE Committee is to enhance skills and post-diploma education through CET. Madam, this is important as many of our Polytechnic and ITE graduates want the opportunity to upgrade. It should be encouraged and identified as soon as possible. These upgrading opportunities and programmes should run in line with the needs of industries and companies that are growing. These upgrading opportunities should be made easily accessible and flexible enough for those who are still working.

The important factor in motivating our workers to upgrade their relevant skills is to create suitable jobs and good pay. If this post-diploma qualification is just for the sake of a paper chase, this effort will not be fruitful.

Cooperation between employers, workers and educational institutions is important so that workers are continuously motivated and would want to have the education and upgrading so that they can get suitable jobs with their increasingly better capabilities.

I would like to encourage our Malay community to seize the opportunities and chance to improve their capabilities and skills for a better future. With these changes and new methods that are recommended in the ASPIRE report, I am confident that more of our Malay workers with ITE and Polytechnic qualifications will be able to benefit from the new programmes and continue to upgrade their skills to get a better life for themselves and their families.

(In English): Madam, it is right and very important that we look back at what we have done right in the early days of our economic growth, and also the methodology that we have implemented in our Polytechnics and ITEs, which are seen by all the foreigners as wonderful institutions. It is also important that we see that the improvisation and creation of new training programmes and the assistance that we are providing for our workers and our students, in partnership with companies, locally and globally, will result in a better system. This is all in aid of helping our youngsters to obtain useful, marketable skills for good employment and the right employer. It will help to improve the quality of our workforce and, in turn, our productivity for a sustainable economic growth that we want to achieve for the long term. Madam, I support the Motion.

Order. I propose to take the break now. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair again at 4.25 pm.

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Sitting accordingly suspended

at 4.07 pm until 4.25 pm.

Sitting resumed at 4.25 pm

[Mdm Speaker in the Chair]

*Debate resumed  (proc text)]

Mdm Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to express my initial comments as a newly appointed Nominated Member of Parliament.

I thank Minister Heng for sharing his valuable imperatives. First of all, I would like to thank the Prime Minister for his commitment that "Singapore must always give our people full opportunities to achieve their potential and to give every Singaporean the confidence to shoot for the stars". I also wish to congratulate the ASPIRE Committee for the hard work done. I believe the ASPIRE recommendations have come in a timely manner, as our country's industry employers are experiencing a shortage of talent, especially at the technical mid-management level, and, as the recent #AskPMLee sessions noted, a degree of dissatisfaction amongst our nation's students. In this context, I am thus in full support of educational reform in the name of applicability and accessibility.

However, I believe that the conditions and context within which ASPIRE has come into being are indicative of greater cultural problems that go beyond the scope of this report and so need to be duly addressed.

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I will first begin my speech with a statement of my support for the Motion, before moving on to a wider assessment of these cultural issues in greater detail.

As a qualified professional architect with over 25 years of experience in the building and construction industry, I can affirm that the skills-based approach of the ASPIRE recommendations has great industrial relevance, particularly in the field of architecture, which combines the need for scientific knowledge and artistic skills. Employers and industry professionals alike have noticed with frustration a steep decline in the value of craftsmanship amongst incoming batches of graduates.

The element of cultivated artisanship, of refining one's skills and priding oneself on it, has, indeed, taken a backseat in the relentless paper chase as professional success becomes increasingly defined by the number of degrees one holds.

Of course, employers, too, have a part to play in affecting this work climate, and we should, henceforth, be careful not to let such arbitrary degree bias affect our hiring decisions. The ASPIRE Committee's movement to instate benchmarks for hiring and progression with sector-specific standards should go some way towards alleviating this, though with any attempt at establishing universal criteria there must be room for nuance and flexibility.

ASPIRE can thus prove to be a turn in the tide: the mentorship and apprenticeship structure of the Place-and-Train programme will make strides in the development of our students' experiential wisdom, as they spend the sector-specific amount of time working with and building the necessary interpersonal relationships with industry professionals, which will effectively become important stepping stones in their careers ahead. Students receive the learning opportunities and valuable face time with future employers that can only come through on-the-ground experience, and their skills are put to good practical training with the promise of equitable remunerations.

The resulting collaboration and dialogue between school and industry foster a synergy that not only provides our country's employers with a competent and well-suited workforce, but also ensures our students undergo a first-hand understanding of their prospective professions that they might not have sought for otherwise, and I believe such training is a necessary part of the preparatory curriculum.

It is with this spirit that I look forward to the implementation of the aforementioned recommendation. At the same time, I believe that this bid to strengthen our country's skills-based education will not grow in opposition to but, in fact, will inspire similar initiatives in the Humanities and the Arts. For while we equip our students with the skills needed for industry, our education system is also responsible for their growth and development as self-

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fulfilled adult individuals, which I believe cannot happen without a firm grounding in or at least personal acquaintance with the Humanities and the Arts.

Arts and culture in Singapore are often framed outside of civic engagement or even more meaningful productive activity and any attention paid to them is usually, as in the case with most urban politics, expressed within the conversation of attracting tourism and economic development, rather than creative self-expression or self-fulfilment. This tendency for Singaporeans to distill everything into its pragmatic value has suffocated the intellectual and artistic capacities of our youth: the fact that the motivation for tertiary education can be so easily abbreviated into a degree chase for higher professional salaries instead of a personal thirst for knowledge is one such indicator of this trend. The loss of craftsmanship I mentioned earlier is, in fact, reflective of a deeper societal attitude that needs to be worked on.

Our students are people before they are commodities in the labour market. Madam, we need to see every child as an individual with their own talents and gifts and the entitlement to an individualised education that goes beyond simple behavioural modification to comply to a particular set of industry norms. This will be the first step towards inculcating a broader curiosity in the world, so that our students realise their own gifts and develop a sense of purpose and willingness to work towards the mastery of these gifts.

The ASPIRE report briefly touches upon the emotional development of the students but only nominally and the recommendations seem to go the way of token gestures by HR departments to create "better working environments" without doing anything substantial. Personal growth goes beyond financial support and a hotline.

The so-called "soft skills" should also be the primary focus of ASPIRE, as well as the education initiatives to come. As such, we first have to eradicate the notion of arts and culture as deeply elitist, and place it at the centre of a holistic education. We need to create and foster cultural equity by providing equal opportunities for arts education and, hence, remove it from the ivory tower of cultural institutions, for it is through the Arts and Humanities that we can cultivate in our country's students an integration of the head, heart and hands, which is the essence of fruitful creativity.

Our ITE and Polytechnic students must not be made to feel that they do not deserve to develop creatively and artistically, or that their education simply stops at the quick acquisition of skills for future employment. There needs to be instilled in our students a sense of personal artistic actualisation, which cannot be achieved by ownership of a degree or diploma alone. A holistic education should activate the heart; it should build confidence and self-assurance in one's own unique creativity without using a school degree as a security

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blanket. This self-motivated passion for utilising their artistic capacities will prove to be a key component to the success of ASPIRE, as the degree chase will fade away in the face of a personal drive towards mastery and a cultural conviction of an individual's skills as valuable in their own right.

There are already existing methodologies for holistic education we can learn from. Examples, such as Dr Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which was elaborated earlier by my fellow colleague, Ms Denise Phua, or Daniel H Pinks' theory on what motivates us, where factors such as autonomy, mastery and purpose are proposed channels for better performance and personal satisfaction.

In order to achieve this shift in cultural attitudes, we need to re-examine our entire preschool, Primary school and Secondary school education. Teachers will need more training in developmental science, brain-based learning and the enhancement of their students' multiple intelligences. Apart from simply updating their skill sets, we need to prepare our kids for autonomous self-directed learning, a drive towards mastery and self-discipline for deep concentration.

Moving on from ASPIRE we will thus need to further investigate our country's stance on culture and creative production. We need to build broader definitions of who and what an artist can be in our society. The pursuit of artistry should not be viewed as a leisurely indulgence, or as counter-productive to professional and industrial excellence. For the cultural health of our society, Singaporeans will have to create an environment where art is valued for its own merit, so that our children no longer see artistry, craftsmanship, skilful mastery and self-expression as merely bad financial decisions.

The Government often sees our local arts scene as self-focused, constantly asking for support, while members of the artistic community often choose not to work through the redundancy of the Government bureaucracy and start their own community-based initiatives. There has to be more mutual support between these two entities: on the part of those in Government, we need to celebrate, not dismiss or criminalise, our grassroots artistry; we need to reconfigure how we handle the processing of permits and artistic access to the community's public spaces; and, most of all, we have to start promoting art as an asset for the city, so that we may become a flourishing democracy with a strong cultural centre.

At this point, Madam, it is important to recognise the nature of our demographic make-up as a population that is witnessing a rapid rise in our median age. In Singapore's fondness for everything new and everything fresh, we should not be neglecting a significant part of our population who continue to actively seek professional dynamism in their middle age and beyond. So, while I commend the ASPIRE Committee's due diligence to ensure the sustainability of these skills-training programmes post-graduation, we need to make sure

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that the same opportunities and support are accessible and affordable to all ages.

Lifelong learning is a process and a journey. I am, indeed, heartened to note that a continuing education and training masterplan is in progress, as mentioned by Senior Minister of State Ms Indranee. I believe that there must not be an age limit to the acquisition of knowledge and skills. What is especially important is the need to encourage and facilitate those in their mid-careers to have access to such facilities without having to sacrifice their careers just to acquire additional expertise.

There seems to be an ageist partiality that is pervasive throughout our society's attitude towards our older citizens, and it is something we should be consciously working to change for the better. As the official retirement age inches upwards from 62 to 65, we are hence tasked with helping more and more of our older citizens maintain and assert their cultural-economic relevance.

Our cultural infrastructure has to keep up with the developments in our country's physical infrastructure: efforts by the Building Construction Authority to achieve greater public mobility through the implementation of the universal design mark have greatly improved way-finding and navigation around our city, making it a friendlier place for all. On the part of the urban planning sector and the construction industry, we are determined to reconfigure our physical landscape in a way that is all-inclusive. Universal accessibility is a key spatial indicator of a progressive city. This concept should apply to all layers of our societal reform: we will need greater improvements in our country's physical, cultural and educational infrastructure in the name of accessibility, and we will need to move even faster to catch up with our citizens' demands and seize these new dimensions of economic opportunity.

Madam, I believe these internal shifts in culture will prove to be vital to the strengthening of our global representation, as Singapore and Singaporeans become increasingly dominant players internationally. The implementation of the ASPIRE recommendations itself will be a big step forward: instead of seeking foreign validation and certification of our abilities, our students will find enough assurance in the competitiveness of their own local training to confidently step forward as highly skilled professionals in the international arena. This will be especially relevant as local companies seek to assert a greater and bigger presence in the region and beyond.

And so, I stand with Minister Heng Swee Keat and Senior Minister of State Indranee Rajah in support of the Motion, and I look forward to more holistic reforms on our country's education front.

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Thank you, Mdm Speaker, for this opportunity – my first to speak in the House. Mdm Speaker, I would like to speak in support of the Motion. I would like to provide my interpretation of the role the ASPIRE Committee's recommendations play in our economic restructuring by identifying three of its underlying implications.

Singapore has enjoyed half a century of sustained jobs growth with steady resumption of employment growth after each downturn. The longer this continues without interruption, the greater the danger of believing falsely that we are specially endowed with recovery abilities denied to other countries, all too familiar with widespread joblessness.

Recoveries that our labour market has been able to stage arise from nothing more than a basic philosophy imbued in our workers that productive workers and successful companies work together to create jobs.

Madam, the ASPIRE recommendations are a responsible and necessary step forward. More importantly, what they do is to reiterate this guiding philosophy. We must approach the implementation realistically without expecting a panacean change because the experiences of other countries make it clear that there are difficult challenges to be confronted. We should continue to bear in mind the circumstances within which Singapore's economy is required to operate.

Mdm Speaker, please allow me to elaborate on the implications before I describe some practical concerns which I believe would have to be addressed in implementing the recommendations.

First, I see the recommendations as recognising that knowledge penetration in the economy can occur through both academic excellence as well as accumulated experience, and by degree holders as well as non-degree holders.

I would argue that the ASPIRE Committee has not gone out of its way to dispel well-established notions about the importance of University degrees. Its recommendations also do not constitute a challenge about the importance of University education. The fact is that degree holders and degree aspirants should not need anyone to argue on their behalf. Instead, what I see is a warning against leaving our students unprepared for the rigours of the workplace that is set to become more and more competitive over time.

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The ASPIRE report recognises that the ultimate aim, regardless of whether an academic pathway or an applied pathway is taken, is to equip students to make an impactful and fulfilling contribution before they enter the workforce. Being fully prepared for the workplace is the key, and the reality is that, given the right vocational training, some of our students will likely enjoy an equally, if not more, rewarding career over their University-trained counterparts.

On the other hand, students who rush headlong and unprepared into a University degree without taking time to decide on what is most suited to their aptitude and inclination may not achieve their full potential, and may actually fall behind their vocationally-trained counterparts. There is growing concern about this, not just here in Singapore, but many advanced industrialised countries as well.

In Singapore, the statistics on the labour market performance of degree holders already contain some warning signs. For example, resident degree holders are the only group with a re-employment rate that falls below 50%. What this means is a majority of residents succeed in gaining re-employment after losing a job, except for degree holders. This is why it is important to work with students on applied pathways to help them to understand that merely getting a degree does not place them at the leading edge in the competition for good jobs.

Secondly, ASPIRE also addresses key economic vulnerabilities which could be attributed to our size limitations. Our size limitations prevent us from relying heavily on foreign manpower. However, in the transition to more self-reliance, we have to be careful not to end up in a precarious position which compromises our economic competitiveness, especially when it comes to employment creation.

The Singapore economy has developed to a stage where further progress depends on access to manpower with deeper sets of skills and a broader range of capabilities than the resident workforce alone at the present stage can supply. Without freer access to foreign manpower, the economy's manpower needs cannot be satisfied by depending on education and training through the academic pathway alone.

Driven by their bottom line, employers have to be very discerning when it comes to skills. The voracious hiring appetite over the last decade or so had been caused by employers relying on manpower to increase their productive capacity. Choosing manpower instead of investment in new capital or technology when expanding the scale of production could be a sign that employers are uncertain about the appropriate entry point they should make into new technology. Some of this could be signs of a persistent shortage of skilled manpower, which could explain why some employers are blaming the tight labour market for forcing

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them to curtail expansion plans.

Regardless of the opinion one holds about our reliance on foreign manpower to make up these gaps, the fact remains that there has been a significant numerical shortfall in the availability of local manpower to meet the needs of our economy. For example, unemployed degree holders number only about one-tenth the number of Employment Pass holders. You would need to integrate all economically inactive residents with at least diploma qualifications before you match the Employment Pass numbers we now have, something that is clearly impossible. This is what I interpret the emphasis of ASPIRE on broader and deeper skills to mean: our resident workforce must broaden and deepen its skillsets and have the range to cover more positions as we continue towards further labour market tightening.

Hence, I am particularly encouraged by the ASPIRE recommendations for a Place-and-Train scheme to improve the ability of new entrants to the workforce to meet employer needs. This brings employers into the picture earlier and involves them in the training process. In order for Singapore to have a more secure manpower policy that does not involve excessive reliance on foreign manpower, we need to build up the technical and academic skills of our workforce.

The recommendations delivered in 2012 by the Committee of University Education Pathways Beyond 2015 (CUEP) put us on a path to seeing half of each cohort achieving a Government-subsidised degree education by 2020. However, even if we were at that level of cohort participation now, it would be insufficient for the economy we have managed to create.

We already have an existing ITE and Polytechnic education infrastructure that is performing well, but the excess demand for graduates could be attracting more of these graduates to go for a degree without them first making a distinction about whether the prospects they gain will result in an improvement in their employability and their long-term ability to contribute to the economy. The ASPIRE recommendations fill that gap.

The emphasis on alignment with employer needs will enable ITE and Polytechnic graduates to gain a first-hand understanding of what is valued at the workplace. This will help them to inform their choices should they decide to invest further valuable resources into pursuing education.

Preserving the capacity of the Singapore economy to create jobs is what I see to be the third and most important implication of the ASPIRE recommendations.

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The process of job creation does not easily lend itself to policy fine-tuning. If it did, you would not see the massive rates of unemployment many OECD economies have been struck by since the great recession. For some time now, we have been constantly reminded of the lengths to which these economies have had to resort to address their unemployment woes, as observers guess at the chaos that could accompany the withdrawal of Quantitative Easing. As we move to moderate the pace at which jobs are being generated by the Singapore economy, we have to be careful to avoid severely impairing the job creation process. Once it is impaired, even literally throwing money at it may not even work.

The situation is not, I believe, catastrophic, but we cannot ignore the fact that after four years of increase in foreign worker levies and tightened quotas, some businesses have been squeezed hard. Hence, being responsive to the needs of businesses when it comes to the shortfalls they experience in manpower supply is important. When employers can rely on well-trained, highly skilled, reliable workers, they have the confidence to invest in better equipment and technology. This produces a virtuous cycle which leads to better productivity performance and, in turn, encourages further job creation. The economy as a whole benefits from the improved competitiveness. This is the celebrated achievement of Germany's model which has attracted worldwide admiration.

But we cannot understate the difficulties of implementation. We will face them and we should set in place performance monitoring and quality assurance systems to detect and handle them.

Countries mentioned in the ASPIRE report have agencies which spearhead research into and monitor the outcomes of their vocational training programmes. Such monitoring has revealed issues, such as a lack of interest from students in certain occupations, poor completion rates and insufficient training positions provided by companies. The effectiveness with which such issues can be dealt with will improve with early detection.

Unlike Germany, we have not had the type of relationship between employers and trainees which recognises the latter's future value to the company they train in. This trade-off would affect whether employers decide to take trainees under their wing. Without a longer term association between the trainees and their host companies, if you see trainees moving from one company to another because of relationship issues, the costs will mount and could outweigh the benefits for the companies involved.

In addition to getting employers to support and participate in the scheme, we will need qualified trainers within the participating companies. Other countries who have considered adopting Germany's model, have discovered that this key ingredient – the close relationship between its employers and training providers – was not something that they could easily replicate. Despite its highly celebrated status now, Germany's apprenticeship scheme has

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also seen its share of ups and downs. In the early 2000s, for example, Germany was stung by criticism over the poor performance of its students in international PISA assessments. Throughout, it was this solid arrangement of having a tradition of qualified trainers that saw it through.

We have to convince suitable students that such a scheme is worth the commitment, especially when they begin making comparisons with their classmates, former schoolmates in the academic pathway. After they have given their commitment, however, we must not underestimate the difficulties involved in juggling family commitments, course work and a full-time job.

Half a century ago, at our Independence, workers in Singapore tended to be less educated and accepted low wages because of the excess of supply over demand. As several Members have already pointed out, the same principles inexorably govern the demand and supply of graduates across all specialisations so that excess supply will always result in the same predictable outcome.

When addressing the challenge of unemployed graduates, there are further dimensions, namely, the number of years and the amount of money a person has spent earning the degree. Where has that sacrifice of time and resources gone when a graduate can no longer be matched to the positions available in the job market? This is not an easy question for policymakers anywhere to answer, and other economies are also grappling with the same issue.

Getting an even higher degree was one potential avenue, but that requires further investment of time and resources. In addition, if a person is not suitable for existing graduate-level positions, having a post-graduate degree could actually exacerbate his or her problems. Such a challenge must, therefore, be tackled at its root, with the focus set on ensuring that further education continues to enhance the human capital of Singapore's next generation of workers instead of confounding their chances. The ASPIRE recommendations demonstrate a conservative and responsible concern for this challenge.

At the end of the day, there are only about 3.5 million Singaporeans and I believe the ASPIRE recommendations offer a valuable alternative that can maximise each individual's worth without displacing the importance of degrees. However, the recommendations are only a starting point and the implementation will be a long undertaking which requires the support of all its stakeholders.

We should aim to continue to keep the economists arguing about what has made Singapore succeed. Half a century of sustained job creation is not long enough. It is still too

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early to consign that record to history. Therefore, I would like to state my strong support for the recommendations, and I look forward to their successful implementation.

Mdm Speaker, thank you for allowing me to join in this debate.

I support the ASPIRE report and I believe its recommendations are timely and welcome. So much so, that like several speakers from yesterday, I find myself wishing that the recommendations could have been extended beyond just ITE and Polytechnic students to all students in Singapore as a whole – JC, University and, even to some limited degree, Secondary and upper Primary.

If I have one key concern about the ASPIRE report, it is that its recommendations may not go upstream enough to make the impact that we all hope to see for the generations to come.

Yesterday, some Members raised concerns that ASPIRE's ability to succeed depended greatly on today's culture of employers, teachers, parents – and youths themselves – being ready and open to a major paradigm shift. This is not a minor concern. The fear to lose – the "kiasu" syndrome that we laugh about – runs long and deep in our city's children and adults. It is this fear that gives birth to our neurotic obsession with status. It is this fear that displaces

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our faith in our children's unique strengths and interests and compels us to put our trust instead in excessive private tuition, examination results and paper qualifications as the best indicator and guarantee of future career success. So, it will be this fear that will hold many of us back from choosing ASPIRE's new way forward despite all indications that clinging onto the cultural excuse of kiasuism has been and always will be toxic for all of us. Something is wrong when some of our University graduates still feel compelled to put their PSLE results on their work resumes as if it mattered that much to an employer.

For the past 12 years, I have been in both the position of an educator of youths as well as a director of a collective of businesses, and, thus, an employer of many degree and non-degree holders, both young and old. From what I have seen, I believe there is a great need to help all students discern better career choices, deepen their skills and discover more pathways to success – as ASPIRE recommends.

Every year, I ask each new batch of 17 to 18-year-olds that I teach whether they enjoy school, understand not just the "what" but the "why" they are studying and whether they look forward to entering the working world. My focus group may be small and not representative of the whole but I am concerned that, over 12 years, I have never had a batch of students where there was a majority who readily said yes to all of the above. I discovered that most of their lack of enthusiasm about the working world was rooted in cynicism about what control they had over their choices, as well as a careless ignorance about the dramatic changes happening in the real world. Anything outside of the narrow constraints of examinable school curriculum was dismissed as irrelevant to their future.

It is a running joke among General Paper (GP) teachers in Singapore that the Cambridge GCE "A" Level examiner reports constantly chide Singaporean students for writing year after year that "Africa is a country" rather than a continent, and apparently one full of nothing but starving children and AIDS epidemics. Many of these students continue to memorise the Rwanda of their seniors' outdated examination notes still stuck in the 1994 genocide and failed to perceive how dramatically a country could change in 20 years. The same youths who could not see the Rwanda of 2014 that positions itself as "The Singapore of Africa", with some of the fastest economic growth rates in the developing world, do eventually grow up into the adults who will miss out on the best business opportunities that Africa has to offer.

So, if we are serious about building a culture that seeks mastery of skills, pursues relevance and loves life-long learning, we have to go upstream and seriously commit to recalibrating our education system away from rewarding mere examination excellence to rediscovering – and rewarding – a genuine love for life and learning again.

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I would like to offer three possibilities of how we can intervene earlier in education to help ASPIRE succeed in serving our youths and, in turn, our city.

Firstly, we should protect our youths' freedom to pursue whatever path of Knowledge that is meaningful to them. When we rob our youths of their ability to choose what they want to study based on our own adult assumptions that it is "too hard for them to score" or "will bring down our school ranking" or "will not earn you enough money in life", we teach them very early on that no matter what people say, our society will only accept a certain pathway to success and you have no choice but to take it to its bitter end. Trying to convince them otherwise later down the road at an ITE, Polytechnic or University stage becomes extremely difficult. In 2001, 16,970 students took pure Literature at "O" Levels. In 2013, only 3,000 did. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it was the desire to maintain school rankings based on "O" Level results which led to some schools dropping Literature or actively discouraging students from taking the subject because they could not score high in it.

Those in the arts scene will share the same observation as those in the corporate world of the results of raising less literary-minded youths – many young Singaporeans today are not strong in the soft work skills of communicating ideas deeply, analysing character behaviour objectively and understanding deep complex narratives about themselves and society.

The late Steve Jobs created the world's most valuable brand, Apple, because he was equally developed in the seemingly unlinked skills of electrical engineering, calligraphic design and narrative construction. What exciting intellectual property we might have seen created in Singapore if more young people were given the full freedom to play with the subject combinations they want, regardless of their ability to score well in them?

The second thing I would recommend is to give our youths early and extended exposure to all forms of work. I believe we should bring work-and-study, Place-and-Train programmes in some form even to younger students as part of examinable curriculum. In 2012, Raffles Institution introduced an innovative Gap Semester where 16-year-olds were given nine full weeks after their Year 4 final examinations to pursue non-academic interests and to make presentations on what they had learnt to their cohort. I do not see why this innovation cannot be introduced in other schools in some form. Imagine if every Singaporean teenager, from every kind of school, were given the blessing by their school system to take nine weeks off every year to intern in various industries, to consciously experience all sorts of work – blue-collar and white-collar, corporate and creative – and to earn a small allowance while they are at it. I believe parents would love it and I believe early exposure to the complex reality of the workplace is one of the best ways of helping young people discover for themselves the value of soft skills, nurturing a deep respect for all forms of work – and

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gaining more insight into what type of work actually suits them later on in life.

My third recommendation is: do not just educate the youths in "career and industry awareness" – educate the parents and teachers as well. Parents and teachers are key influencers in any youth's career decisions. They form the ecosystem of advice and support surrounding young people, and they need just as much continual exposure to changing industrial trends and learning about where the world is going. If these adults themselves are still stuck in old narratives about what makes for valuable work and do not keep up with global market trends themselves, they may still pressure our youths to make archaic career choices that even the youths themselves do not believe in.

In conclusion, Mdm Speaker, Member Denise Phua's speech raised the crucial question, "How long does it take to change a culture?" If we take her answer of 10-20 years, then I suggest that there is no better time than right now to take the bold and visionary steps needed to free our children and our children's children to discover a stronger and more compelling narrative about work – that all Singaporeans can do work that is meaningful for ourselves, matters to our community and makes life worth the living and learning from. With that, I support ASPIRE's recommendations.

Mdm Speaker, in the spirit of Bulan Bahasa, please allow me to address in Malay.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] I support the recommendations of the Applied Study in Polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education Review (ASPIRE) Committee because these recommendations can potentially help Polytechnic and ITE graduates to upgrade their skills and productivity, which can provide better opportunities for them in terms of their career and income.

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NTUC welcomes the recommendation to strengthen the Education and Career Guidance (ECG) programme in schools, ITEs and Polytechnics. In order to ensure that good guidance is provided, it is essential that the staff that are selected to run this programme are very knowledgeable and able to give sound advice. On this matter, I would like to suggest that MOE provide job opportunities to mature or aged workers who have long careers in certain fields and have a rich working experience and knowledge. These experienced workers can be trained to become counsellors who can give guidance to help students make good academic and career choices.

I would also like to urge MOE to encourage schools, Polytechnics and ITEs to work with the Labour Movement through nEbO, an NTUC branch that comprises union members who are youths. nEbO is spelt with a small "n" and "b" and capital "E" and "O". Unofficially, it means "nobody enjoys being ordinary". Presently, NTUC's nEbO is collaborating with 11 Secondary schools, ITEs and Polytechnics to organise study visits for students so that they can see and understand the careers that they are interested in. I hope that every Secondary and tertiary student will become a nEbO member in the future, so that the Labour Movement, through the unions, can help them explore their interest in their career of choice.

ASPIRE also recommended the enhancement of the internship programme for Polytechnic and ITE students. Here, I hope that these students will be equipped with knowledge on the Employment Act. This is important to ensure that they know their rights as workers even during their internship. On this matter, too, NTUC is willing to play a part to enhance the students' awareness and knowledge about the Employment Act and the role that the unions can play to help them in terms of their employment and standard of living.

ASPIRE also proposed to assist the deepening of skills after completing ITE and Polytechnic education. I think that this effort will achieve good results if MOE collaborates with organisations that possess the capabilities and have been providing career counselling services. The Employment and Employability Institute, or e2i, the Lifelong Learning Institute and WDA have a group of career consultants that are willing to help Polytechnic and ITE students choose the right career and can continue to help them enhance their work skills in the future. The expert resources available in these organisations must be utilised to achieve ASPIRE's goals.

On the recommendation to develop sector-specific skills and progression frameworks with the cooperation of the industries, the Labour Movement would like to urge MOE and MOM to involve NTUC in this effort because NTUC is actively encouraging every sector to adopt a progressive wage model that provides wage increment ladders that are based on productivity, skills and career. Any framework that is developed must be transparent and fair so that it will motivate workers to upgrade their skills and productivity. For this framework to achieve the intended objectives, it is important that emphasis is given to the

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role and responsibility of the employer to ensure that the worker's career is based on his/her skills, productivity and responsibilities, and not solely on educational qualifications.

ASPIRE can transform the labour force in Singapore because it presents a good future for workers who are ITE and Polytechnic graduates by enhancing the opportunity to upgrade skills that are relevant to their careers. Even so, it is important also to make efforts to change mindsets and convince the community that success in the workplace does not necessarily depend on an undergraduate degree. Success can also be achieved by deepening skills in the jobs that we are interested in.

In this aspect, I would like to urge Mendaki and other Malay/Muslim organisations to work with MOE to lead the effort in engaging Malay/Muslim parents and students on ASPIRE. Allow me to quote a phrase from the Suara Musyawarah report, "The committee is concerned that although many education pathways are provided to the community, the parents and the students themselves may not even be aware of the career objectives and potential that may be present with each choice." Therefore, it is imperative that our community becomes aware of the efforts that will be taken to implement ASPIRE's recommendations, and we must make use of the available opportunities to help Malay students in the ITEs and Polytechnics to understand and achieve success in their careers.

This effort to engage the Malay/Muslim community will also be in line with the Suara Musyawarah committee's recommendations to have a more specific public awareness programme on educational and career pathways. This may bring about a mindset shift among parents and students about ITE and Polytechnic graduates, since this group of students will possess niche skills and expertise that can be upgraded so that they can enjoy good careers.

However, the Suara Musyawarah committee admits that the Malay/Muslim community is facing the challenge to stay competitive within Singapore's labour force. According to the Suara Musyawarah report, "The inability or the refusal to upskill is usually linked to issues of finance and the readiness to do so, family commitments and possible disruptions to the present careers." These are issues that may hinder the Malay/Muslim community from getting the benefits, in terms of career, that can be gained from the implementation of ASPIRE's recommendations. Hence, emphasis should continue to be given to mindset change, skills upgrading and learning within the Malay/Muslim community through the efforts of MENDAKI and other Malay/Muslim organisations.

Mdm Speaker, before I end, allow me to read a poem from the Suara Musyawarah report:

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Lightning flashes across the sky

Dark, grey clouds ahanging up on high

Whilst awalking and thinking of policies

To stabilise and strengthen the community.

Allow me to also reply to that poem to show my support to our Malay language:

Never stand on open ground

When rain and thunder are around

Opportunities are right in front of our eyes

And ASPIRE can give hope to our community.

Mdm Speaker, I support the Motion.

Mdm Speaker, I rise in support of the Motion as it is both timely and a step in the right direction.

A fundamental tenet underlying the Committee's approach was that all Singaporeans should have opportunities to realise their full potential and progress in life, regardless of their starting point. Many Members of this House have spoken about this and I, too, strongly support this key tenet. Indeed, we must make available to as many people as possible multiple routes to a successful and fulfilling life and career rather than solely based on paper qualifications.

In a young and developing country like Singapore, it is important that every citizen is developed to the best of his or her ability and, as far as possible, every citizen should be helped to achieve a position where he can best contribute to society and also find the most fulfilment. As such, this message, that opportunities will be given to all, regardless of academic qualifications, needs to be disseminated to all strata of our society, all stakeholders, employers, employees, students as well as parents.

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I think the central factor to this exercise is how our country and we, as a people, define and celebrate success, and also how we treat and value people and respect every job. It seems naturally ingrained in us that we want to do well and to hope that our children can be successful. Like all parents, we are hopeful that the next generation will do better than the one before. But how do we define what is "better" or "successful"?

Meritocracy is an essential and integral part of Singapore's political and social culture for years and academic qualification is often viewed as a stepping stone to getting a secured future, grounded in a good job with better pay. This emphasis on paper qualifications, or worse, the idea that a degree of any type is needed for future success, has permeated parts of our society.

In the minds of some, this has mutated into a sense of entitlement, where there is a belief that once a person has a degree, regardless of what one wants to do, that person should be given a job with pay commensurate to the degree. I must reiterate that I am not at all saying that degrees are no longer valuable or worth pursuing. Rather, it is the pursuit for degrees sake, regardless of its relevance to the worker or his job that needs validating. Big changes in mindsets will be called for if this mental shift is to be practicable.

Whilst meritocracy has transformed our country from Third to First world in a short span of 49 years and benefited Singapore and its citizens, it can be argued that the time has come for us to relook this primary "key" which unlocks the doors to opportunities. Can there not be other alternative keys which may also unlock those same doors? Or perhaps the issue can be seen in another way, where the idea of "meritocracy" is not equated or so closely intertwined with "academic achievements", such that other forms of achievement can also be recognised on equal footing as "meritocracy"? I submit that such non-academic achievement must include work skills, experience, or even recognised knowledge acquired possibly in ways not linked to examinations or written tests. In essence, we must strive for a fair meritocracy to ensure that equal opportunities will benefit all segments of our society.

Singapore has been successful in its economic restructuring since 1965, due largely in part to its ability to establish a close relationship between policies for skills formation and the demand for skills at each base of the country's economic growth.

One of Singapore's great achievements in education is an early emphasis on technical training to develop a workforce that is continually relevant and employable. Singapore's ability to anticipate and adapt to changing trends and employment landscape has been critical in future-proofing our workforce.

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The ASPIRE report is not just about providing more opportunities for Polytechnic and ITE students to progress but also our continual effort to anticipate and make our workforce future-ready. The post-European crisis has churned out some valuable lessons for Singapore. Germany's successful model of apprenticeship has spared the country from the worst of Europe's crisis.

Whilst our younger new job entrants as well as some existing employees would be happy with the prospect of careers tied less to a paper qualifications but more to their applied skills and job performance, one cannot underestimate the width and breadth of change that is needed. While the efforts of the ASPIRE Committee are commendable as well as the Government's willingness to accept all the recommendations, it is one thing to have these fine recommendations but another if the practices on the ground are not in sync.

Society's mindsets and cultural changes are needed for ASPIRE and the new employment culture to achieve its intended objective. For the recommendations of ASPIRE to be successful, much work is needed to boost recruitment and recognition of apprenticeship programmes. People must believe that apprenticeships are viable and worthwhile options for them to have a sustained and fulfilling career.

Employers must also adopt a holistic approach in the development of their workers. Employees can be placed in jobs that could enable them to hone deep skills and provide scope for developing their career growth and progression. Employers can better outreach to employees with succinct communication of the company's training and development framework.

The Building and Construction Authority Apprenticeship programmes introduced since 2012 not only help firms to upgrade their existing local tradesmen, the programmes also offer vocational pathway to an academic route. Most importantly, upon completion of these programmes, the apprentices will qualify to be registered as Core Trade tradesmen or foremen. Such recognition for their trade specialisation is critical in the success of the Apprenticeship programme.

Parents are naturally anxious about their children's future and may seek assurance that indeed without a degree, their children can progress and be recognised at their work place. The task forward will take time to generate the buy-in. With the resolve of the Tripartite Committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman to give weight and to drive the process forward, I look forward to more industry partners and employers adopting a structured apprenticeship model where Polytechnic and ITE students, who have demonstrated their ability to combine academic and work skills, are the kind of workers for the new economy.

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Let me share a case in point of Germany's experience as compared to the United States' dual focus on preventing students from dropping out and getting them into universities. Under the Pell Grant Program, it costs the American taxpayers more than US$30 billion each year and yet American students periodically do not do as well comparatively. On the other hand, Germany's vocation trainings are based on the enlightened view that not everyone will benefit from a university education. The expensive resources can be better allocated elsewhere. A notable success story of Germany's new belief system is the famous chef, Claus-Peter Lumpp.

Chef Lumpp's story could just be one of the many who drop out of schools in our mainstream education. His mother gave him permission to leave school, but only if he found an apprenticeship. Lumpp landed one in the kitchen of the Hotel Bareiss in 1982. Today, Lumpp's Restaurant Bareiss has a three-star rating from the prestigious Michelin guide and most of the chefs in his kitchen were mentored under the same system that brought his talents to the fore. As a result of this system, few Germans find themselves unemployable. The youth unemployment rate, for example, was just 7.7% in February, well below that of the US and the euro zone as a whole at 23.9%.

In this regard, Mdm Speaker, our employers need to play their part to give priority in nurturing deep skills and developing the potential of our workers. Many other countries are strait-jacketed in their policies, with many young people with general degrees who have the expectation that they would obtain lofty professional jobs commensurate with their qualifications. We need to stay away from such gridlock. In some of these same countries, workers with essential skills were able to get ahead in life with better pay and career prospects.

Mdm Speaker, our world is fast changing. We are now faced with the rapid rise of smart machines and systems, emergence of new media ecology, super-structured organisations, a globally connected world and an ageing population. These disruptive drivers are reshaping the future landscape for our workforce. With a rapidly ageing population, coupled with the fast changing outlook of the modern workplace, workers in the future will also need to be adaptable lifelong learners.

Many senior workers may have wanted to pursue a certificate, diploma or degree when they were younger but were unable due to financial constraints or family obligations. Employers and our educational institutions can also look at welcoming our senior workforce to pursue their passion for lifelong learning to gain knowledge and expand their horizons in their field of interests.

This June, I had the pleasure of attending the ITE College Central Graduation Ceremony. I would like to make mention of a special graduand, Ms Liaw Lay Kian. Lay Kian is a NITEC in

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Nursing graduate who enrolled for her NITEC at age 50 and graduated this year at age 52 which is three times the age of most her graduating cohort. She could not pursue her studies earlier as she had to care for her bed-bound father-in-law for 16 years and her ailing husband for 10 months before he passed away. Lay Kian has intimate and first-hand knowledge of the toll illness can take on the family and can empathise with the patients and their families' struggles.

She brought her passion in palliative care to Dover Park Hospice as a volunteer and then enrolled into a Nursing course at ITE. At 50 years, she found it daunting to go back to school but her determination and resilience saw her achieving an almost perfect GPA of 3.94 which earned her the Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal. She currently works at Dover Park Hospice and will be pursuing a Diploma in Nursing course starting this October. Lay Kian demonstrates an inspiring sense of determination and resilience. This quality is more important than any paper qualifications. At her age, she continued to pursue lifelong learning even when it was difficult. Learning new skills when one has gone past the conventional school-going age is never easy, but Lay Kian has shown us that personal determination and resilience can make it possible.

In closing, let us not allow any lack of paper qualifications, even age, be barriers to have a fulfilling and rewarding career. Older workers can aspire too and should be given equal opportunities. I urge employers, parents and education institutions to come together and value our precious human talents regardless of their starting points. Let us re-define "success" and embrace a fair meritocracy that will uplift all segments of our society, providing each with equal opportunities and many pathways to achieve their own aspirations. Indeed, we are not scaling to reach a single summit but enabling all of us to reach the many different peaks of a wide mountain range. Madam, with this, I support the Motion.

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