how-ihls-can-stay-relevant-to-workforce-upskilling

How IHLs can stay relevant to workforce upskilling

Authors

  • Benjamin Chiang

    EY Government & Public Sector Leader, Singapore

  • Samir Bedi

    Singapore Government & Public Sector Leader, Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd.; EY Asean People Consulting Leader

4 minute read 19 May 2022
Related topics
Government and Public Sector
Workforce
Education

Beyond helping students to gain knowledge to enter the workforce, institutes of higher learning must reinvent to support lifelong learning.

In brief
  • Due to the fast-evolving business landscape, formal education will not be sufficient to prepare individuals for their entire career.
  • To bridge skills gaps, an ecosystem approach supported by the government can foster the co-development of learning programs that are in demand. 
  • Bite-size, personalized and flexible learning programs can better help working individuals learn new skills that align with their career aspirations.

How EY can help

The Future of Jobs Report 2020 by the World Economic Forum reported that an estimated 40% of workers worldwide will require re-skilling within six months. To achieve continuity of relevant talent that can contribute to the economy and society, governments are pushing for the workforce to upskill and re-skill. 

 

Across Southeast Asia, authorities are working on initiatives to equip their workforce with future-ready capabilities and institute a culture of lifelong learning. Malaysia has allocated MYR1.1b under Budget 2022 to upskill and train its workforce.1 Indonesia is also emphasizing vocational and educational training to improve the productivity of its workforce.2 In the Philippines, government agencies and the private sector collaborated to launch the Philippine Skills Framework to promote mastery of skills and lifelong learning in the Philippine workforce.

 

For Singapore, workforce upskilling and re-skilling has been a national imperative since 2008. In the Singapore Budget 2022 announcement, Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong re-emphasized the need to empower and equip Singaporeans on their lifelong journey to acquire new skills and sharpen existing ones. This time, the country will go a step further to transform its institutes of higher learning (IHLs) into institutes for continual learning.4

The EY report  Are universities of the past still the future? highlights that with a shortening half-cycle of knowledge and skills and the faster turnover in market cycles, the workforce needs to continually upskill and re-skill, and IHLs have a key role to play. 

Indeed, amid the fast-evolving business landscape, it is no longer imaginable that the education gained in school during the first 15 to 20 years of our lives will be sufficient to prepare us for the rest of our career.

A changed approach to education

Traditionally, IHLs are knowledge creators and design their undergraduate and postgraduate programs as continuous, multiyear structured courses conducted in group or classroom settings. While this approach may work for full-time students, it may not suit working individuals who cannot afford disruptions to their work schedule over an extended period or require a broader or more unique scope of learning. The curriculum and delivery of training therefore need to change, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, many IHLs have turned toward online learning. 

Online degrees and online learning are not new. In 2014, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) launched its online teaching and learning initiative in cooperation with the University of California.5

Global online learning platform Coursera entered the education scene about a decade ago, giving learners access to online programs from universities and companies around the world. Its bite-size and flexible learning appeals to working individuals and other learners residing in diverse locations who can learn new skills remotely without having to travel to attend lessons physically.  

Indeed, for working individuals, learning needs to be made more flexible. To that end, learning programs can potentially evolve to become somewhat like “music playlists” in the future, where individuals can opt for set course “playlists” or design entirely personalized, self-directed ones. Based on learning preferences and personal circumstances, learning modes can be personalized too. 

In fact, some IHLs are transitioning toward such an approach. For example, students at INSEAD’s MBA program can choose from more than 75 different electives.6 The Kellogg School of Management’s MBA allows students to choose from more than 200 courses and gives them the option to skip core courses and focus on electives that match their career goals.7 This allows learners to have their learning as broad or as focused as they would like and supports a variety of career pathways.

Supportive learning ecosystems

The education sector alone cannot bridge current skills gaps. An ecosystem approach is integral so that IHLs will develop relevant programs. Supported by the government, IHLs need to work with private enterprises and specialists to design programs that will develop capabilities that are in demand in the market. While many IHLs are already doing this, the review of the learning program cannot be a one-off exercise — otherwise the updated curriculum can soon become obsolete.

IHLs need to collaborate with private enterprises and specialists to develop needed
workforce capabilities as well as continually review learning programs so that curricula
will remain relevant for the fast-evolving business landscape.

How EY can help

  • Education services

    Dedicated teams of EY professionals can help you deliver quality education and improved operations and student experiences around the world. Find out more.

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In Singapore, as part of the SkillsFuture Queen Bee initiative, the government already engages private enterprises and provides them with support to identify skills gaps as well as develop and deliver training for emerging and sought-after skills in certain sectors. IHLs need to position themselves more strategically to participate in this ecosystem. This involves tapping into government resources and learning from private enterprises to codevelop and deliver re-skilling and upskilling initiatives together. In addition, this should be a continual, repeatable cycle. There is also scope to extend collaboration to other Southeast Asian markets so that the wider region can collectively benefit from the upsides of the skills uplift. 

 

With shifting learning needs in the workforce, IHLs must also be nimble to change to remain relevant and competitive for the future of education — one that is expected to be radically different from programs today.

 

This article is co-authored by Benjamin Chiang, EY Asean Government & Public Sector Leader and Samir Bedi, EY Asean Workforce Advisory Leader; Singapore Government & Public Sector Leader, Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd., with contributions from Rishi Gajendra, EY-Parthenon Associate Partner, EY Corporate Advisors Pte. Ltd.


Summary

Given the fast-evolving business landscape, governments are pushing for the workforce to upskill and re-skill to remain relevant. IHLs play a key role in bridging skills gaps. They must collaborate with private enterprises and specialists to deliver bite-size, personalized and flexible learning programs to help working individuals learn new skills that align with their career aspirations.

About this article

Authors

  • Benjamin Chiang
    EY Government & Public Sector Leader, Singapore
  • Samir Bedi
    Singapore Government & Public Sector Leader, Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd.; EY Asean People Consulting Leader
Related topics
Government and Public Sector
Workforce
Education

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