Together with industry partners, the Singapore Government will adopt three broad strategies to develop a sufficient pool of high calibre infocomm manpower and net-savvy workforce to sustain the growth of the Singapore economy. This was announced tonight (04 March 2000) by the Min...
Singapore, 4 March 2000 | For Immediate Release
Singapore will be Established as the e-Learning Hub for the Region
Together with industry partners, the Singapore Government will adopt three broad strategies to develop a sufficient pool of high calibre infocomm manpower and net-savvy workforce to sustain the growth of the Singapore economy. This was announced tonight (04 March 2000) by the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, at the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) Gala Dinner.
With the growth in e-businesses, there will be a surge in demand for infocomm manpower. The industry has projected a need for 250,000 infocomm manpower by the year 2010, which is more than two-and-a-half times the current infocomm manpower of 93,000 that is being employed across all industries.
The three strategies announced by the Minister include enhancing an environment to nurture a net-savvy workforce, attracting and retaining international talents, and establishing Singapore as the e-learning hub for the region.
Strategy I - Enhance an Environment to Nurture a Net-savvy Workforce
To enhance the environment to nurture a net-savvy workforce, the government, together with the industry and institutions of higher learning (IHLs), will cooperate to build a strong setting for our manpower to master the use of information and communications technology for all sectors of the economy. Four initiatives have been developed to build that environment. They include establishing a world-class infocomm education, enhancing the capability of the infocomm manpower, developing a net-savvy workforce and developing infocomm skills standards.
The Ministry of Education's target to have 30% of the school curriculum computer-based will pave the way for our students to be infocomm-savvy. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) will also facilitate more link-ups between schools and industry players to impart the students with infocomm skills.
IDA will work with IHLs to continuously upgrade and review their curriculum to train students to be infocomm specialists and application developers with multidisciplinary skills in emerging areas such as Electronic Commerce, Interactive Broadband Multimedia, Info-Communications Convergence and Knowledge Management. The IHLs will also infuse core infocomm skills into the curriculum to train students to understand and manage the impact of e-Commerce on their respective industries such as law, medicine and finance.
To equip our workforce with the necessary infocomm skills and competencies for the knowledge-based economy, IDA, Productivity and Standards Board (PSB), Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) will develop a national e-CREST programme to train participants in core infocomm skills.
Strategy II - Attract and Retain International Talents
There is strong global competition for high-calibre international infocomm talent. IDA, together with other agencies, will embark on focused recruitment trips to attract international infocomm talents and students as well as implement programmes to encourage them to stay here.
IDA will facilitate work pass applications for international infocomm talents to work and stay in Singapore. A separate queue has been set up in Ministry of Manpower to process work pass applications for the infocomm sector and IDA will help manage this queue and give special attention to these Employment Pass applications.
Strategy III - Establish Singapore as the e-Learning Hub for the Region
As we transit into an economy driven by the Internet, e-Learning will be an increasingly important enabler that allows people to learn anytime and anywhere. Various Government bodies like IDA and MOM will collaborate with the industry to put in place an e-Learning infrastructure and develop on-line content. The government will also attract and foster alliances with world-class learning service providers.
Besides benefiting the local workforce, Singapore can extend this e-Learning infrastructure beyond her borders to be the regional hub. One such project is the Virtual Institute to be established by the Institute of Systems Science to provide e-Learning for infocomm professionals and managers, both locally and regionally.
Industry-driven Infocomm Manpower Committee
An Infocomm Manpower Committee is formed to discuss high level issues and make recommendations to the Government relating to infocomm manpower. This industry-driven Committee will provide the National Manpower Council established under the Manpower 21 masterplan, with useful insights from the industry perspective. The Committee will be chaired by Mr Saw Ken Wye, Managing Director of Microsoft Singapore Pte Ltd, who is also a key council member of the Singapore Computer Society and the Singapore IT Federation. A list of the committee members can be found in the manpower development document.
Details on the strategies and initiatives, and the list of Infocomm Manpower Committee Members mentioned above can be found in the attached documents.
ISSUED BY CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIVISION
INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE
For media clarification, please contact:
Ms Dulcie Chan
Manager, Corporate Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Tel: 3221999
Email: dulcie_chan@imda.gov.sg
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