How governments can seize the GenAI opportunity

How can learning be transformed for a more human-centered workforce?

When reimagining learning pathways with technology, it is crucial to put humans at the center and adopt an ecosystem approach. 


In brief

  • Generative AI can be a formidable catalyst in transforming how the education sector meets the evolving learning and skilling needs of the workforce.
  • Orchestration by the government and partnerships between educational institutions and the industry are crucial.
  • This will help develop learning curricula that are agile in meeting future industry demands.

With the current macroeconomic volatility, escalating geopolitical tensions, the climate crisis and the emergence of new technologies, businesses and economies need to navigate a myriad of disruptions. Achieving long-term value and growth requires incisive and inclusive actions that focus on Singapore’s most important asset — its workforce.

According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority, the contribution of the digital economy to Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) jumped from S$58 billion (or 13% of GDP) in 2017 to S$106 billion (or 17.3% of GDP) in 2022.1 To prepare the workforce for growth and competition in the future digital economy, transforming education and unlocking the potential of the workforce with digitization and artificial intelligence (AI) will be key.

The World Economic Forum notes that 44% of workers’ skills worldwide are expected to be disrupted in the next five years2, given how the rate of technological transformation is outpacing re-skilling and upskilling efforts. In particular, generative AI (GenAI) — the next generation of AI that can generate content based on a given prompt or context — is increasingly adopted across industries. GenAI is already enhancing efficiency and productivity for organizations and the workforce. It can also help employees acquire new skills and knowledge, improve their problem-solving and decision-making abilities, and catalyze creativity and innovation.

GenAI as a catalyst for change

GenAI can be a formidable catalyst in transforming the education sector and how it serves the evolving learning and skilling needs of the workforce.

Fundamentally, institutions of higher learning (IHLs) need to design services that adequately address the needs of learners, take a longer-term view to anticipate learner needs and develop flexible, inclusive learning offerings. They should also build strong capability pipelines within their talent pool to deliver outcomes rapidly. This means aligning the value proposition of offerings with the evolving demands of students and the workforce as well as having a clear understanding of the end-to-end learner experience and how to enhance it.

A recent EY report noted that some of the top expectations of the student experience include improved career prospects and alignment of programs with career pathways. Students also expect seamless discovery, application and enrollment journeys. Therefore, the design of services and systems must enable staff to spend more time helping students achieve their learning and career readiness goals. Technology must also be matched with investments in upskilling staff to deliver an exceptional student experience.

With GenAI expected to have a significant impact on the labor market and learning pathways, the opportunities to expand, enhance and accelerate learning with the technology are arguably boundless. In the education sector, GenAI can transform the entire learning journey from the preadmission period to after graduation. 

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For students, GenAI can be used to provide personalized and adaptive learning experiences as well as feedback and guidance for learners. It can synthesize traditional, synchronous programs into rich, asynchronous digital content that help achieve superior learning outcomes in a fraction of the time.IHLs may consider providing interactive digital tools to help students choose careers based on their skills and interests and find study programs that address skill gaps. Such tools can also monitor the local job market, analyze in-demand roles to match potential job types to an individual’s competencies and preferences, identify skill gaps and suggest programs that will address such gaps and help improve employability. In addition, institutions can use the data from these tools to monitor in-demand skills and employment trends, which helps them pivot when necessary to meet job market and learner demand.

For example, the Irish government provides a free, personalized careers program for individuals seeking to upskill. The MyCareerPath.ie online platform uses AI to identify motivators, strengths and transferable skills and suggests higher-education programs to help meet career and learning objectives. The program is targeted at six personas based on various life stages and offers four one-to-one mentoring sessions with career and learning pathway advisors.

Besides serving students, digital learning also needs to empower educators and administrators by facilitating knowledge transfer and course delivery respectively. Creating customized, high-impact digital and hybrid learning sessions and leveraging an AI-driven platform to analyze, organize and format content would be ideal. To achieve this, IHLs would need to overcome strategic and operational gaps in the organization.

A poll at a recent EY event for the education sector in Singapore revealed that skill gaps present the greatest challenge to the integration of AI into organizational processes. This is followed closely by insufficient data and technological infrastructure, difficulty in equipping staff with the right skills to handle new technologies, and a lack of trust in the technology.

To effectively realize the potential of GenAI, employees would need to develop essential skills for working with intelligent machines and alongside them. For example, the ability to confidently leverage AI tools to ask good questions and think critically to evaluate the output and its implications is vital. Such discernment will set those who can harness GenAI meaningfully to its fullest potential apart from those who are oblivious to associated risks or unable to leverage the technology at all.

Technology has always been a double-edged sword — it can either promote socioeconomic equity or deepen inequity. To foster a resilient and inclusive workforce that can thrive in this era of continually emerging technologies, timely training and re-skilling opportunities must be available to workers at all levels and stages of their careers.

 

Ecosystem approach as the way forward

The Singapore government has been promoting a culture of lifelong learning and continuous improvement among workers through incentives that help them pursue their learning goals. However, skill needs are continuously changing. The convergence and evolution of industries also mean that multidisciplinary knowledge is needed to equip individuals to thrive in new roles.

Announced in Singapore Budget 2024, the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme for Singaporeans aged 40 and above further enables workers to re-skill and upskill to stay relevant. This is a welcome move, especially for mid-career individuals.

Job redesign is crucial to help avoid job losses resulting from increased digitization. To this end, the industry transformation maps and jobs transformation maps (JTMs) developed over the last eight years offer clarity on required skills and skill-based pathways for industry clusters. JTMs provide detailed insights on the impact of technology and automation on the industry and workforce by identifying key technologies that drive change. Employers and employees alike can benefit from such guidance to prepare for the future of work as technology becomes more pervasive in their sectors.

Successful implementation of these transformation maps requires orchestration by the government and keen collaboration with the ecosystem of public and private educational institutions, employers and other stakeholders. This symbiotic relationship between educational institutions and the industry is instrumental to the development of learning curricula that are agile and relevant in meeting future industry demands.

For example, a multinational engineering and technology company in Australia collaborated with a university to digitalize its engineering facility, creating the country’s first dedicated Industry 4.0 facility. The university leverages the company’s technology to offer its students digital skills training via an Industry 4.0 higher-apprenticeship program and an associate degree in Applied Technologies. Through this partnership, the university also integrates the company’s technology and solutions into its engineering, computer science, and information and communications technology degree programs for stronger industry alignment.

Build the mindset, not just the skill set

With an increasingly intergenerational workforce, a mindset shift in how learning roles are perceived is needed beyond adapting how formal education and lifelong learning is done. Reframing the roles of the teacher and student will be more important than ever as society shifts from a “me” mindset of learning individually to a “we” mindset of greater collaboration in knowledge sharing. Instead of viewing mentorship and learning as a one-way street where only the “senior” educates the “junior”, enabling learning and teaching among teams in the workforce can unlock greater innovation, connection and engagement.

The digital economy comes with new ideas that continually expand, combine and shift into new business models. Therefore, the shelf life of skills is increasingly shortening, and self-driven learning is necessary to enhance the potential of every worker. IHLs should increasingly be seen as a “pit stop” where individuals learn — and learn to unlearn — rather than the end goal.

In the near future, upskilling and digital dexterity are expected to trump tenure and experience, especially for high-value work with cognitive demands. Digital and emotional intelligence are also expected to supersede IQ as a key differentiator that workers would need to face the demands of the digital economy. As individuals develop their digital skills, they must not overlook the need for soft skills — such as critical thinking, resilience, creativity and innovation, complex problem solving, ethical and moral decision-making, and emotional intelligence. This will enhance their ability to leverage new technologies and prepare themselves for the future workforce.



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    Summary

    With the shelf life of skills increasingly shortening, IHLs should be a “pit stop” where individuals learn and learn to unlearn.

    Therefore, it’s more important than ever for IHLs to design services that adequately address the needs of learners, take a longer-term view to anticipate learner needs and develop flexible, inclusive learning offerings. Building strong capability pipelines within their talent pool is crucial as well to deliver outcomes rapidly. Collaborations between educational institutions and the industry are also important to help develop learning curricula that are agile and relevant in meeting future industry demands.


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