MDDI's response to PQ on CET Pipeline of Tech Workers

Parliament Sitting on 7 January 2025

QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWERS

*13. Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) in the past three years, what has been the progress of developing more Information and Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) professionals under the Career Conversion Programme; and (b) what is the Ministry’s plan in further developing this in the next three to five years.

Answer:

There are multiple pathways for Singaporeans to acquire relevant skills for technology-related jobs. 

These include the more than 1,300 AI-related courses offered by SkillsFuture Singapore, as well as career conversion programmes supported by Workforce Singapore, which may also help Singaporeans take up jobs requiring AI-related skills.

Over the past three years, the Career Conversion Programme (CCP) and the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) have helped more than 1,000 and 8,000 mid-career workers respectively to transition into technology roles such as software and cloud professionals, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) engineers.

To strengthen our pipeline from mid-career workers, we are: (i) expanding the Company-Led Training programme under TeSA to organisations that are building AI Centres of Excellence; and (ii) topping up SkillsFuture Credits for Singaporeans aged 40 and above, under the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme (SFLP) to support substantive upskilling and reskilling programmes.

These initiatives complement our broader efforts to expand the pipeline of AI practitioners, including enhancing the AI-readiness of Information and Digital Technology (IDT) graduates from our Institutes of Higher Learning. Our industry partners have also initiated programmes to train and hire AI practitioners, such as AI Singapore’s AI Apprenticeship Programme, SingTel’s Catalyst Programme and Temus’ Step IT Up Programme.