The Technology Skills Accelerator (TeSA) framework is an initiative that brings together industry and employers to help train ICT professionals to acquire and deepen their skills in key areas.
Thanks to the growth of the digital economy and IT becoming more pervasively deployed, as many as 15,000 tech positions need to be filled in Singapore.
Minister Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: TeSA will be the umbrella framework for ICT-related training programmes and career development for all ICT professionals.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is working hard to get these positions filled by Singapore talents, both by targeted training, and by matching jobs and IT workers with the relevant skills and experience.
Speaking at Nanyang Polytechnic School of Information Technology graduation ceremony on 6 May, Minister of Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim elaborated on the Technology Skills Accelerator (TeSA) framework, an initiative that brings together industry and employers to identify expertise that is in-demand, and help train ICT professionals to acquire and deepen their skills in these areas.
“TeSA will be the umbrella framework for ICT-related training programmes and career development for all ICT professionals,” said Dr Yaacob.
However, the focus is not just on training more ICT professionals, but also to move them up the value chain to help them get better jobs and advance in their careers.
Minister for Communications and Information, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, was the guest of honour at the graduation ceremony for NYP's School of IT.
“We know that the demand for ICT skills is getting more specialised. For example, banks are not just looking for ICT professionals with strong foundations in data analytics, but also professionals who understand the financial industry, and who can apply their skills to complex financial transactions and analyses.”
Core and Sector
TeSA will be two-pronged.
The Core programmes will offer more broad-based, foundational skills, rather like what tertiary institutions offer.
The TeSA Sector will offer more specialised training domain skills, catering to the increasingly specific skillsets required by hirers.
IDA’s Assistant Chief Executive Officer and Chief Data Officer Mr Khoong Hock Yun noted that creating broad-based training “may be insufficient for many companies that might pick talents from all over the world.” This is why TeSA has hirers in its council, in order to get a clearer picture of the demand for various sectoral and core skills, beginning with healthcare and finance.
IDA and Workforce Development Authority (WDA) have jointly launched an integrated directory of 380 training courses and certifications - run by 34 training providers including the NUS Institute of System Science, NTUC Learning Hub and Singapore Management University - at the Infocomm Talent portal.
The training courses are based on the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF), and target both fresh graduates and mid-career ICT professionals. The portal will also feature training courses and certifications provided under the Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme Plus (CITREP +).
More importantly, these are not just a catalogue of disparate courses, but are stackable, and guidance will be offered as to what courses to take to acquire certain skillsets, so that ICT professionals wanting to upgrade can see their pathway clearly.
Finally, TeSA will help workers in the last mile, by matching jobs with workers’ skills and experience.
Graduands from NYP's School of IT joining the workforce will be among the beneficiaries of the Technology Skills Accelerator (TeSA) framework.
As Dr Yaacob explained, “Our objective is not just to train more ICT professionals, but to help them get better jobs and advance in their careers.”
NYP graduand Ms Glenice Tan, who earned her diploma in Information Security, said the initiative has created some excitement amongst her friends and juniors. “It is a good opportunity for students to know which areas of IT they are interested in. They can get to work and study at the same time, so TeSA will come in useful for them, as some are not sure which university they want to enrol in yet.”
Second-year Information Technology student Ms Natasha Heng also gave TeSA the thumbs up.
“My course is very broad, as we learn networking and programming. These TeSA courses can provide me with more focused learning,” she said.
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