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Sustaining the Employability of Working-Age Adults: A Singapore Case Study

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Graduate Employability and Workplace-Based Learning Development

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Abstract

There is a growing emphasis, globally, on aligning tertiary education with graduate employability. Much of this effort is directed towards young people’s transiting from schooling to paid work via university and vocational education programmes. Yet, less attention is paid to sustaining working-age adults’ employability through educational provisions. As employability embraces sustaining employment and seeking advancement across working life, it comprises an important educational provision. Drawing on findings of an investigation of Singaporean tertiary education institutions’ continuing education and training (CET) provisions, this chapter proposes how they might be effectively designed, developed and enacted. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, it comprised concurrent phases of interviews with CET graduates (n = 180) and employers (n = 40), a survey of working-age Singaporeans (n = 860) and focus groups with CET educators and administrators. From the findings, sets of principles for the design and enactment of CET programmes focused on accessibility and effectiveness are advanced. In conclusion, although informed by Singaporean tertiary education, the findings reported here have broader applicability in promoting their employability and implications for working-age adults’ sense of self.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Educational Development, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore, Singapore

    Anthony Leow

  2. School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Stephen Billett

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  1. Anthony Leow
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Correspondence to Anthony Leow .

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  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Betsy Ng

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Leow, A., Billett, S. (2022). Sustaining the Employability of Working-Age Adults: A Singapore Case Study. In: Ng, B. (eds) Graduate Employability and Workplace-Based Learning Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5622-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5622-5_4

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