Towards a continuing education and training eco system: a case study of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Nation states need effective, accessible, and broadly engaged provisions of continuing education and training (CET) to develop the capacities of their working-age populations. Understanding what constitutes accessible and effective CET provisions, is needed to enable informed decision-making about realising governmental goals of securing a skilled, employable, and adaptive workforce. To understand what comprises that efficacy, it is necessary to capture, analyse, and reconcile the perspectives of stakeholders including government agencies, education institutions, CET educators and, most importantly, working-age adults. Reconciliation of these perspectives is essential for establishing what constitutes an effective CET ecosystem, including what kinds of CET provisions can best meet the needs of working-age Singaporeans and their workplaces. Drawing on an investigation of CET provisions in the island nation, this paper seeks to illuminate and advance how CET provisions might be enacted through an ecosystem perspective to promote employability.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuing education and training
• continuing education and training ecosystem
• training and adult education
• adult learning
• employability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)’s Workforce Development Applied Research Fund [GA17-05].