CHALLENGES IN RESKILLING MID-CAREER WORKERS
While mother-of-one Irene Yeo was browsing the SkillsFuture portal to look for a short course, she found the number of courses available overwhelming.
“It’s just so much information. You don’t know which courses would suit you, and you still need to click on the courses’ webpage to find out more information,” she recalled of her exasperated attempt to find a course last year.
To spare herself from a headache, she simply closed the website.
Her SkillsFuture credits have also remained untouched as she has little time to take a longer course.
“When I get home, I need to take care of the family and by then I just need to rest,” said Ms Yeo, 44, an after-sales manager. “I just don’t have time to do anything.”
She took up a part-time degree from 2004 to 2007. While she did not have family commitments then, juggling her work and studies was “very stressful” – although she did have an understanding employer who helped her by providing leave for her examinations.
“Now with a child and more life commitments, I don’t think I can find the energy to do any long courses anymore,” she admitted.
While there is growing acceptance of the need for lifelong learning, several challenges – such as lack of time, support and inertia – need to be addressed to ensure that more mid-career workers take up skill upgrading workshops, said HR experts.
“For many, upskilling may be essential, but it may not be perceived as urgent,” Ms Mitra said.
Chief executive officer of the Singapore Institute of Management Academy Ho Seong Kim noted that mid-career workers often have “demanding work schedules and personal commitments, making it difficult to find them to attend courses or engage in learning activities”.
“Learning new skills can be intimidating too, for those who have been in the workforce for a long time and have established routines or expertise in their current roles.”
For SMEs, workers taking courses also comes with an opportunity cost – be it spending money on the courses or having to work with a temporary shortage in manpower.
Mr Ang Yuit, president of the Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), said: “There’s such a wide variety of courses, so SMEs have a challenge when it comes to decision making.
“For example, you wish to send a staff for a course and search for one. There’s so much information, it’s hard to tell if a course fits your company’s needs. After reading for 20, 30 minutes, you have no idea and just give up as you have work to clear. Sending employees on such workshops just goes into the backburner.”
And as SMEs are smaller and may have fewer resources than multinational corporations, Mr Ang noted that some companies may face manpower struggles when employees go for courses that last longer than a day.
Mr Jarieul Wong, co-founder and communications director of public relations agency IN.Deed Communications, added that some companies have limited budgets – which means some workers may not have the opportunity to take part in a course.
Ms Lim of Alnico also pointed out that SMEs may not be able to translate courses into tangible benefits for the company. Hence, they might be more hesitant to send their employees on courses.
She added that some employees may not want to attend courses as they have work deadlines that have to be adjusted due to the courses taking up work time.
However, some SMEs are viewing reskilling opportunities as a necessity to retain their employees – and rid them of the feeling of “stagnation” within the company.
“Our new employees come in and they always say the same thing – they want to learn,” said Mr Adam Piperdy, chief experience officer and founder at event production house Unearthed Productions.
“But at an SME, there will come a time where there is not much employees can learn from their bosses.”
His company allows employees to take a course every quarter. These courses are not necessarily related to their job scope, and employees can choose from the ones proposed during a monthly town hall, or by seeking approval from HR to attend courses they find themselves.
“Our employees can broaden their spectrum, bring different skills to the table,” he said on the benefits of allowing his employees to take courses regularly.
CATERING TO MATURE STUDENTS’ NEEDS
Given these challenges, educational institutions providing reskilling courses for mid-career workers under the SkillsFuture framework have adjusted their courses to fit the needs of their mature students.
Mr Wong Jian Chang, director of Singapore Polytechnic’s (SP) Professional & Adult Continuing Education Academy, said it has developed more asynchronous lessons, allowing learners to learn “anytime and anywhere”.
“While this is important, we augment them with face-to-face sessions so that learners can continue to interact, build networks, and have hands-on learning,” he said.
“For greater clarity and assurance of competencies gained, both to the learners and to companies looking out for skills, SP has started to develop and launch micro-credentials with leading industry or professional bodies to define industry-relevant competencies and develop accreditation methods.”
The polytechnic also has workplace learning programmes, which allow companies to make learning more effective. This includes “developing workplace learning blueprints, coaching workplace trainers and helping with job redesign”, allowing workers to work and learn at the same time.
To address concerns related to tangible benefits from the courses, Republic Polytechnic’s (RP) programmes include project elements in the curriculum. This allows mid-career workers to “build their portfolio in a new area by completing a real-life project”, said Mr Sim Choon Hou, director of RP’s Academy for Continuing Education.
“RP has also seen tremendous growth in our training-cum-project-consultancy model, where participants will bring to the table a problem that they want to solve after attending a course and our lecturers will work as a trainer-cum-consultant to them.”
Through this, the lecturer ensures the project can be completed by the end of the training period – motivating the mid-career worker through “small wins” and allowing companies to see the return on investment through the project implementation.