SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 13 October 2020 - As the national conversation on jobs and employability homes in on upskilling Singapore's workforce, 66% of Singaporean adults are learning online to reskill and boost their chances of securing a job in a new field. Students (90%), the unemployed (86%), and entry-level executives (69%) are the most likely individuals to learn for this reason. These are some of the key findings in NTUC LearningHub's recently launched How Singaporeans Learn Survey report.
The survey, which was conducted online in September 2020 with 450 Singaporean Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents who were users of the LHUB GO online learning platform, aimed to uncover insights into how Singaporeans learn in the Covid-19 era.
When asked about other motivations behind online learning, 75% of respondents say they do so to 'gain a basic understanding/ quick refresher on topics they are curious about', while 72% say it is 'to help them progress in their current field'.
In general, close to a quarter (23%) of Singaporeans learn at least once a month, closely followed by 22% who learn once in three months; 16% say they never learn online. Out of the 84% total who do learn online, 'entry-level executives' in Singapore are the most likely to learn online whereas 'assistant directors and above' are the least likely to learn online.
The report also revealed that the top topics Singaporeans are learning online include 'office productivity tools' (voted by 50%), 'leadership' (voted by 49%), 'service excellence' (voted by 41%), 'data analytics & business intelligence' (voted by 35%) and 'digital marketing & e-commerce' (voted by 32%).
"The pandemic has prompted us to evaluate and innovate new modes of learning to ensure that learning never stops, despite the restrictions on traditional face-to-face training. The report serves as a 'pathfinder' to help readers understand the evolving adult learning trends. We hope that the findings will inspire learners to adapt to new learning styles and gain the relevant skills to keep pace with our labour market demands, as well as encourage companies to identify optimal training and development programmes that can equip workers with skillsets to drive business performance through changing times," says NTUC LHUB CEO Kwek Kok Kwong.
To download the NTUC LearningHub How Singaporeans Learn report, visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/how-singaporeans-learn/.
13 October 2020
