Ministry Must Look Beyond Short-Term Trends to Equip Grads With Skills for Next Decade: Chan

Students take three to four years to graduate from polytechnic or university and the Ministry of Education (MOE) has to look beyond short-term cyclical trends in the labour market, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing.

- Gabrielle Chan

"When we design courses, we must have a long-term perspective of what are the skill sets that are required by the market, not in the next one to two years, but in the next five to 10 years," he said.

"More importantly, what are the adjacent skill sets that will allow our people to pivot to new jobs that may be created and may not even be in existence today?"

Mr Chan was responding to supplementary questions in Parliament on March 7 about the recent university graduate employment survey which was released on Feb 24, which had showed that fewer fresh graduates found full-time work in 2024.

MPs like Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC) and Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) had sought clarifications about whether there is a potential skills gap, and if the drop in employment rates reflects a long-term trend of graduates' job prospects.

Mr Singh had also asked whether MOE plans to review the course curriculum for polytechnics and universities to develop adjacent skills that can be applied in multiple jobs.