Speech by Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong at the Launch of SkillsFuture Festival on 16 September 2026.

Chairman and Chief Executive of the new SWDACabinet colleaguesBrothers and Sisters from the Labour MovementIndustry partnersLadies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to be here to launch this year’s SkillsFuture Festival.

This is the first SkillsFuture Festival since the Skills and Workforce Development Agency was formed, so it is a good time to look back at how our approach has evolved, and where we need to go next.

More than 20 years ago, we established Workforce Development Agency or WDA then to build up Singapore’s continuing education and training capabilities.

We achieved much. But over time, we realised the efforts were not enough. because we also needed our education institutions, in particular, our Institutes of Higher Learning to go beyond their traditional focus on pre-employment education, and become more involved in worker training, and we needed to foster a broader culture of lifelong learning.

And that is why, we launched SkillsFuture in 2015, and then we put SkillsFuture Singapore under MOE shortly after, the Ministry of Education, to make this a priority for all our education institutions. If you put it under MOE, all the education institutions will take it seriously. Then the priorities will be aligned.

So that approach worked well too, and we have seen major changes since then, especially in the adult education landscape.

And so over the last two decades, we have progressively strengthened each part of the system. On the demand side; with companies, on the supply side; with training providers and education institutions. And having done so, we decided earlier this year, that it was time to bring the different parts together.

Because the world of work is changing. With technology advancing rapidly, businesses must now transform more quickly. Skills are becoming obsolete faster, and careers will involve more pivots and transitions.

So in this environment, we cannot treat training, jobs and business transformation as separate issues. They are increasingly part of the same challenge.

And that is why we brought the two pieces together to form the Skills and Workforce Development Agency – to connect skills more closely with jobs and careers, and workforce development more closely with business transformation.

But this is just the first step. The point is not to create a bigger agency just for critical mass. The point is to deliver better outcomes for workers and businesses.

And the real test is whether Singaporeans and employers experience something that is different and something that is better. And to achieve this, we will have to make important shifts.

First, connect learning to jobs and careers better.

We cannot predict exactly where each person’s career will lead. But we can ensure that the skills they acquire are relevant and valued by industry.

And this requires education institutions, training providers, and employers to work closely together. Sometimes, you hear from employers complaining that education institutions are not up to scratch. Employers demand graduates that are job-ready from day one. Maybe some of you here do, but that is not realistic frankly. Yes, education institutions must be responsive to industry needs, but they cannot possibly prepare every student for every specific job. They must also equip young people with strong foundations and a broader set of capabilities to think critically, to be able to adapt and learn on a continuing basis. At the same time, we cannot load everything on the employers. Yes, employers must invest in their workers and you must provide job-specific training, but you too need a strong skills development system to build on.

With training providers and education institutions doing their part, so everyone has a role to its part – and SWDA’s job is to bring the different parts together and strengthen the links between them. And that means paying close attention to the quality and relevance of our training at both the pre-employment stage and also the continuing employment stage. The courses offered must meet high standards. They must provide substantial training. And they must build skills that open up real pathways – to better jobs, new roles, or stronger career prospects.

This work is not static because technology will change; business models will evolve; and jobs will be redesigned.

So SWDA must continually review and refresh the course offerings, work closely with training providers and industry to keep training relevant and up to date.

Second, businesses and workers must transform together.

Every business knows that it must keep changing to stay competitive – you have to adopt new technology, improve processes, and refresh your business model.

And the Government has many schemes to help companies make these changes.

But far too often, the workforce dimension comes later – it is treated as an human resource matter to be dealt with by the HR manager after the business decisions have already been made. And that is far too late.

When companies transform, they must think about their people at the same time.

How will jobs change? What new skills will be needed? How can existing workers be equipped to take on new and better jobs?

These questions cannot be an afterthought. Our workers cannot be an afterthought in business transformation. When a company transforms, its workers should have the chance to transform with it.

So the two must go hand in hand. We want businesses to be more productive and competitive. But we also want workers to benefit – through better skills, better jobs and better prospects.

And the government will try to bring these two important pieces of work together - workforce transformation and business transformation. To achieve that, through SWDA, we will try to bring our support for businesses and workers closer together – so do not just come to the government for enterprise grants. Talk about workforce grants too, and we would like to see you do both at the same time, so that companies can transform your operations and improve and strengthen your workforce at the same time.

Third, we will make our system easier to navigate.

Even when good support is available, workers and businesses may not know where to begin.

In Singapore, we have many schemes, many programmes, many providers. Sometimes it can be confusing, even overwhelming. So we do need to streamline and be more customer-centric. People should not need to know which agency runs which scheme before they can get help.

We ought to take a more customer-centric approach, and this is what SWDA will try to do; to provide a simpler and more coherent journey tailored to the needs of both workers as well as businesses. And we will start today with several moves.

First, we will be launching a one-stop portal for employers, where you can access resources you need for your business. Second, we will refresh the SkillsFuture Portal. This is for individual learners. Over the years, we have received many feedback about the portal that it is rich in content, it has got many course offerings, but if you are coming in new into the learning space, it can be quite hard to navigate. So we are refreshing the portal to make it more streamlined, more easily accessible, and we are also launching what we had announced in the budget this year, that with this new portal, it will come with six months free access to premium AI tools like ChatGPT Plus and Google AI Pro, as well as a curated catalogue of over 200 AI courses. So all that will be launched today.

Another move we are making today is the opening of a new service centre called Connect by SWDA.

This is a new touch point where these three shifts I talked about earlier come together.

The centre will be more than a place for people to sign up for courses. It is where we bring together learning, career guidance and employment support.  It is where jobseekers can take stock of where they are, understand where the opportunities lie, and get tailored advice on the skills and steps they need to get ahead.

And the support will not stop at this physical centre.Â

We will also increasingly use digital tools to make personalised guidance easier to access – wherever Singaporeans are, and whenever they need it.

This centre, Connect by SWDA will support employers too. Businesses can receive tailored advice on how to transform their workforce. How to redesign jobs and equip their workers with new skills. And how to seize new opportunities, while enabling their workers to grow with their business.

We know that smaller businesses may need more help. And so we will give them additional support, including digital tools to help them self-diagnose and identify opportunities to transform, funding to offset some cost of job redesign and workforce transformation. As well as support from the larger Queen Bees companies – companies that can serve as pathfinders, and help them in their journey.

So SWDA through the efforts of this new centre and the different ways in which we can make the shifts that I mentioned earlier will drive this new approach of bringing workers and business transformation together, but SWDA cannot succeed alone.

In this age of artificial intelligence, countries everywhere are looking for new ways to invest more in skills and prepare their workers for change.  Few have found solutions that work effectively at scale at a national level, because skills and workforce development cannot be done by the Government alone. Nor can it be done by employers, unions or training institutions acting separately. It requires all parties to work together.

And this is where Singapore has an advantage. We are small, we are compact, our institutions are well integrated, and we have built up a strong and long-standing tripartite partnership, and a habit of working together to solve problems.

So, if any country can make a breakthrough in this, it is Singapore, and SWDA will build on this foundation. It will work closely with our tripartite partners, our trade associations and chambers, professional bodies, institutions of higher learning and training providers – to reach more workers and businesses, and to make our support more effective.

The work has already started, and I am glad to see many of our partners here today. Ministry of Manpower and SWDA have launched Alliances for Action, to work on issues like supporting senior workers, building more flexible work pathways, and helping fresh graduates take their first step in the workplace. Every issue is different, but the approach is the same: bring the right people together, understand the problems they are facing, and work out practical solutions collectively.

This collective effort will matter even more in the years ahead.

AI is advancing rapidly and will reshape work across every part of our economy. When we talk about AI and jobs - many people tend to focus on whether over time there will be more jobs or fewer jobs. Frankly, no one knows the answer at this stage. Only time will tell. But what we can be sure of is that whatever jobs we have, they will not be the same as today. The content of jobs will be different, so jobs will change. Skills will change. Careers will become less linear. We cannot stop these changes. Nor should we try. Because change also brings new opportunities, new businesses and better jobs over time.

So our task is to make sure that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by these changes – but are equipped and ready to seize new opportunities.

And so our message to all Singaporeans is clear: if you are prepared to learn, adapt and make the effort, we will help you build the skills you need and find a pathway forward. You may have to change jobs. You may have to learn new skills. In fact, you very well probably have to learn new skills, but you should never have to face these challenges alone.

And that is what SkillsFuture is fundamentally about. It is not just more courses and more credits. It is about confidence – confidence that even technology advances and our economy changes, you can keep doing better, and share in our nation’s progress.

This has always been Singapore's compact with workers, and amidst all the changes around us, we will continue to deliver on this promise. With SWDA, we will strengthen this compact for our next phase. We will make sure that business transformation and worker well-being go hand in hand. That a strong economy will lead to better jobs, better prospects, and better lives for all Singaporeans.

So, on that note, I wish everyone a meaningful and fulfilling SkillsFuture Festival. Thank you very much.