SkillsFuture Singapore as a national approach to reskilling

I was recently introduced to SkillsFuture Singapore during The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI) webinar titled “INTERNATIONAL COMPETENCIES SERIES – PART 1 – Competency‑Based Professionalism: Developing Practice‑Focused Instructional Design Competencies for Continuing Education and Training (CET) Professionals in Singapore’s MAPE Programme”, led by Doris Choy of Nanyang Technological University.

Some reflections are included in this post, including after some research following the call.

What Is SkillsFuture?

SkillsFuture is Singapore’s national approach to lifelong learning, skills, and workforce agility. It provides Singaporeans with opportunities to develop and reskill, with the aim to build (or indeed maintain) their highly skilled, future‑ready workforce. This national effort involves individuals, employers, training partners (including universities), industry bodies, and government working together to build what appears a robust upskilling ecosystem.

The UK versions?

In many ways, the UK’s attempt to build job profiles and reskilling via apprenticeships is similar but you suspect the Singapore model is more robust (it at least sounded that way on the webinar). That said, I do quite like the UK’s “Occupational Maps” that are in public beta. The contradiction there seems to be the demand to move apprenticeships away from reskilling to early careers.

Conclusion

Back to Singapore and The SkillsFuture portal, looks impressive in breadth of programmes and tools available for learners and employers. For individuals, initiatives include discounted training for Singaporeans as mentioned on the webinar.

Intellectual cooperation

A few weeks back I had the joy of attending the book launch of Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations. It has been a while since I attended an event like this, I used to sneak into them quite often due to the volume of universities in London, so it was quite a nice change.

Linkedin post with more detail on the event.

Link here to a podcast recorded on the day of the event by the organizers with a couple of the contributors.

At the event, one interesting aspect of the research was mentioned – that part of the League’s work in the area of intellectual cooperation was investigating if common textbooks could be created for global use. In the post-WWI environment, this was an idea to help tackle global issues but the idea can clearly be seen today – for example in the desire to decolonialize curricula, provide global resources via OERs and related topics such as open access publishing. Whilst the LoN’s “Committee of textbook experts” had little success, more success was had in areas including student exchange, again, something in the 2025/2026 news given the UK’s possible reentrance to Erasmus.

Overall, worth a read (or at least a podcast listen) for anyone with an interest in the history of international organizations and/or education.

Thoughts on the Mindtools L&D Podcast’s “Navigating the fog of learning design”

Link to this recent podcast.

Dr Guieswende Rouamba’s reflections on the podcast, including why they have written “The Instructional Designer’s Guide to Project Management” were very interesting so I thought I would share some reflections:

  1. My MSc covered project management for instructional design in quite a lot of detail so I would say I have a different experience to that described as the norm.
  2. An approach of having two levels of PM (as described by Dr Rouamba) between instructional designer as project manager and a higher level person performing portfolio management is certainly similar to a lot of my organizational experience.
  3. The challenge and vagueness of “engaging” learning and the need for clear expectations. This resonates due to some recent experience in considering engagement vs outcomes vs brevity vs constraints.
  4. How can ID work best given the challenge of shifting priorities and SME availability challenges? This has certainly been my experience and, again, makes ID (in my opinion) unlike some other areas – for example, common business tools like RACI, KPIs and SMART goals can be tricky in ID.
  5. The importance of clarifying roles. I am increasingly viewing this as the major challenge in many projects (not just ID ones) as the professional profile and mentality of different people can be quite different to what you expect.

Sliding door moments

I was very impressed with a recent The Rest is Politics episode with regards to the discussion on “the conversation that changed everything” campaign.

Whilst I have not had to have such a conversation in relation to addiction (thankfully). It did make me think of major conversations in my career. Just some of these sliding door moments:

  1. As a an undergraduate: Some 1-2-1 time with feedback on an essay. Dr Ayton wouldn’t remember this but it was hugely helpful in my ways of thinking and writing. If that conversation had not happened, I certainly would not have been as successful at university and since then.
  2. Early career: talking to the recruiter at Codemasters (whose games are now on this amazing website) during and after interview about opportunities, the gaming industry, etc. The first (only?) time I turned down a job and a real sliding door moment (for mostly good hopefully).
  3. As a postgraduate: Dr Cox helping with various aspects of my dissertation work that still impact how I research and manage my activity today.
  4. In a job hunt: various conversations with recruiters over the years could fit in here.
  5. Line manager conversations: too many to list

Part of the trigger for all this reflection is that I am close to having been in my current role longer than any other I have held – 🤯 – if we discount my long love affair with Somerfield 😉

Preparing for the 2025 GLOW Conference

The 2025 GLOW Conference promises a rich program of sessions, empowering attendees from every time zone.​​

This year, I join an inspiring roster of presenters drawn from every corner of the globe. As part of my contribution, I will be sharing insights into the critical, yet often hidden, work of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) — exploring their pivotal role in enabling technological progress, fostering international collaboration, and supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.​

SDOs are collaborative bodies that bring together experts from industry, academia, government, civil society and other groups to develop consensus-based standards. These standards are essential for facilitating global trade, ensuring product compatibility, promoting safety, and accelerating innovation.

In my 20 minutes session, I will quickly aim to demystify the standards development orgs and demonstrate how educators, researchers, and other professionals can get involved with SDOs to help bridge the gap between emerging technologies and real-world applications. I will also examine how SDOs work with educators to inspire the next generation of leaders.

Actionable Innovations Global YouTube for past sessions.

Registration for this year.