Member of Parliament (MP) for West Coast GRC, Ang Wei Neng, clarified on his Facebook page today (3 Mar) about a statement which he had made in Parliament previously on putting a ‘time stamp’ on university degrees and also requiring graduands to upgrade themselves every five years.
This comes after netizens had unleashed their fury online after hearing the statement made by the MP.
In his Facebook post, he said that his statement was meant with the intention that Singaporeans should continue to upgrade themselves to stay relevant.
Here is the post by the MP
“Earlier this week, I spoke in Parliament about the need to transform the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs). With rapid changes in technology and industry trends, there is an urgent need for continuous training and lifelong learning. While a degree remains valid, the market value could diminish over time if graduates are not provided with opportunities for timely refresh and updates.
To ensure that university education remains relevant, an idea I raised as food for thought in Parliament was that graduates could be requested to attend training and upgrading programmes every five years or so, to keep themselves updated on the latest trends and technology affecting their industry. My intention was to emphasise the need for Singaporeans to continually upskill to stay relevant in the modern economy, and spark a conversation about what role IHLs can play in this.
Hearing from your sentiments online and offline over the past few days, I see that many Singaporeans are speaking fervently about this critical yet complex issue. Moving forward, the best solutions will be co-created with fellow Singaporeans to explore more viable avenues to futureproof our economy.
Below is an abstract from my speech. The idea of the time stamp is meant to be thought-provoking and to emphasise the importance of lifelong learning. It was not meant to be a policy recommendation.
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Extract from my speech
19 If we believe in the notion that every company has to be a tech company to survive, then almost all key personnel in the company, ranging from HR, procurement, marketing, customer service, etc., have to be IT savvy and be able to adopt technology that can make their works more efficient and effective. That being the case, the IHLs have the urgent need to incorporate tech components in almost every course in the university. More importantly, the IHLs have the mission to provide continuous training to existing professional to equip them with technology skills and other skillsets to keep up with the industry trends.
20 If we take a step back, we may need to examine if we need to put a time stamp on the degree conferred by IHLs. What do we mean by time stamp? One radical idea is to put it as a requirement that the graduates have to attend upgrading courses every 5 years or so. If you do not upgrade, your degree will fade over time and you no longer can claim the degree as your credential. Sound scary?
21 Mr Speaker sir, if we are serious about continuous training and lifelong learning, we have to be radical about transformation. It may not and should not happen overnight. But, we have to start to transform our IHLs.“
Image source: Ang Wei Neng/Facebook, Google Maps
