India and Singapore can work together to create workforce of the future: Union Minister

Bhubaneswar: There is immense scope for India and Singapore to work together to achieve mutual priorities, particularly towards preparing a future-ready workforce, said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday.

Addressing the workshop on “Future of Work: Skill Architecture and Governance Models of India and Singapore”, organised on the sidelines of the G20 3rd EDWG meeting in Bhubaneswar, the minister said skills development and knowledge collaboration is an important element of the strategic partnership.

“Skilling is lifelong. In next quarter century, 25% of the global working population will come from India. Until and unless we skill, re-skill and up-skill our young demography and prepare them for Future of Work, we cannot fulfil global responsibilities,” he added.

Pradhan said the joint workshop between India and Singapore will focus on leveraging the expertise and knowledge of Singapore and facilitate mutual sharing of experiences for addressing obstacles to skilling and further transforming the Indian skills ecosystem.

In the context of Future of Work, India and Singapore are engaging holistically to deliberate on development of new curriculum for skill, framework for skilling ecosystem in higher education and compulsory apprenticeship and frameworks for lifelong skilling.

Simon Wong, High Commissioner of the Republic of Singapore to India, in his address mentioned the close ties that Singapore has with India. “Singapore is the first country to establish linkages with UPI through their fast payment system PayNow. Also, a few days ago, Indian rocket PSLV placed two Singapore satellites into the orbit,” he said.

He said there is a huge opportunity to extend this cooperation to the space of skilling. Singapore follows a skilling philosophy of leaving no one behind, training for decent jobs and building a confident nation because decent job increases the confidence of the individuals and their families, he added.

Melissa Khoo, Deputy Secretary (Higher Education and Skills, Ministry of Education Singapore); Secretary, Higher Education, K. Sanjay Murthy; Secretary, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Atul Kumar Tiwari; Secretary, School Education and Literacy Sanjay Kumar and senior officials of Ministry of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship attended the workshop.