To Future-Proof Singapore's Workforce: What Will It Take?

The Relevance of the Question NOW

David Cameron is resigning because the British people did not heed his warnings about what undoings the "Leave Vote" will bring about. Those undoings will play a major part now, in guaranteeing that the forecasts The Singapore Futurist repeatedly warned the world about at the very start of 2016 across a number of public posts on LinkedIn Pulse, will indeed play out;

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An economy highly dependent on global dynamics, Singapore, or rather its workforce, cannot be immune, isolated or insulated from the impacts of what lies ahead for the whole world; a period of the very worst economic turmoil in the modern history of the world. And then, what must come after, to supplant the current ways in which the world's or humanity's economic or commercial activities are conducted, quite very necessarily, to rid the world of the very vulnerabilities, thanks to which, things are currently, very terribly failing, will also certainly impact, the tiny Island City State. The impacts of both the near-term realities or the long-term realities need not be as ugly, as they can quite very really be. That is what Future-Proofing is about. That warrants a question though, that how is that Future-Proofing possible for Singapore's Workforce?

The First Step - Identifying the Challenge

The last really major long-term plans to engineer Singapore's economy and workforce were anchored directly or indirectly upon its role as a major Financial Hub. Unfortunately, thanks to India, China and Fintech, that isn't going to quite help for very long now, to as much a degree as previously hoped for.

With no natural resources in any significant quantity, and pressing shortage of land mass, both "wonderful" "gifts" or "blessings" of nature and geography upon the tiny nation, there are truly limited options of economic activity for the country, whether in terms of mining, agriculture or production, the three most traditional and relatively most secure economic options otherwise known to mankind generally. 

With changing international trade realities, Singapore's status as probably the world's most important seaport, one which it has enjoyed till now since its founding, no matter how one may argue against it, too, is at threat.

While technological evolution, traveller behaviour and shifting wealth are presenting Singapore as a more probable destination for tourists ahead, due to land scarcity, in the long-term, the traditionally advantaged tourism sector of the country too can come under threat, eventually, within the natural lifespan of the Millennial, let alone the iGen.

All that said, think along the convergence of changing aspirations of an increasingly intelligent and well-informed citizen population with the possibilities of automation of tasks thanks to evolving technology, ahead. 7 out of 10 tasks or jobs done at the hands of human beings, that do not require at least a university degree level of thinking, will not see human beings performing them, 10 years from today, anywhere in the 1st World and Singapore can't escape that reality. Ouch. What it also cannot escape, is that 7 out of any 10 tasks that requires graduate level thinking, but in a linear fashion today, will also be automated away from human hands, by 10 years from now, at least, again, through the 1st World. Another big ouch. To put things into perspective, a laptop today definitely costs less than the monthly salary of an entry level graduate in Singapore. Big, big, big, ouch.

Where is the True Potential?

Knowledge and Intellectual Services. Singapore's Potential? Be the World's Capital for Knowledge and Intellectual Services. The country has all the perfectly necessary makings, to perfectly attain exactly that status, much to the unprecedented gains of its citizens, if the country consciously and actively pursues the opportunity within its reach now, to be just that. If however, that potential, and option, is not pursued, nothing can be more tragic in the country's story, ahead. 

Can you think of a country, that has a higher literacy rate? Can you think of a citizen population, with a more academically qualified citizen base? And then look specifically, at what Singaporeans have long been renowned for around the globe? Can you think of a country better connected and more tech savvy?

Singaporeans have evolved into a group of people, just designed by fate, if not anything else, to deliver to an optimum, in the role of guiding the world in the area of Knowledge and Intellectual Services. The country needs to consciously and actively move in that direction though. It won't just happen on its own.

The impending turmoil of the near future, out of which a necessarily new human approach to commerce and economy will emerge to entrench itself, presents the perfect fertile settings, for Singapore to act, in pursuit of a new global role, in Knowledge and Intellectual Services.

What needs to be done?

The start has to happen with supplanting the present approach to education with a wholly new and completely unrelated one. The country can longer no afford to maintain a system that focuses on only appreciating and gauging the numerical and linguistic intelligences, to decide if whether or not one is deserving of progress or promotion through the educational system, or to determine if one is competent. Every type of intelligence must be accorded equal appreciation, importance and focus, independently and exclusively of every other, so as to firstly push every individual towards his or her potential and then secondly to serve the collective interest of the whole nation, by benefiting from every individual's highest potential, to contribute to a Knowledge & Intellectual Services anchored economic model. And then the country needs to encourage and incentivise every individual to pursue the maximum level of education possible, to be able to support that model.

Learning will have to be seen as more than a necessity, but rather as a national culture and identity, that one cannot separate from, throughout one's lifetime. This would also extend, towards re-skilling the existing workforce participants that may have long left the educational or academic systems.

Then the next natural step, is to allow the citizen population to apply the developed intellectual prowess to sustain it across different fields. Given the population size and limitations along with the ever changing needs the country will be faced with, even in its long-term role of supplying optimum level Knowledge & Intellectual Services to the globe, by positioning itself as such, foreign labour will always be needed. What the country will have to ensure in both policies and practice, is that any pair of hands imported into country, are allowed in solely on the premise, that the qualifications for which those pair of hands are brought in, are absent or insufficient within the country. For example, as long as there is an accountant within the country that can do with a job that may be vacant, an accountant from abroad, should not be brought it, but if there is an event of a gap, than the local is hired, trained and developed to overcome that gap. Sounds draconian and almost protectionist, but it does make sense to ensure, that a skill set is not denied to the nation, as being a constituent part of its overall citizen competency map.

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting include Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning andOrganisational Future Proofing. Harish also has a background in HR Consulting, Executive Search, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Executive Coaching, Career Coaching, Assessment & Development Centres and Vocational Programme Management for Employability Enhancement.