DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Launch of Raikan Ilmu @ Heartlands 2024

Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad
Mdm Zuraidah Abdullah, CEO of MENDAKI
Community Leaders
Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning, selamat pagi.

I thank Minister Masagos Zulkifli, who is also Chairman of MENDAKI, for inviting me to launch this year's Raikan Ilmu, to celebrate knowledge and lifelong learning. Minister Masagos and I served as fellow Tampines MPs for almost 10 years. We enjoyed working together to serve our residents in Tampines, and to work together to realise Our Tampines Hub, and to see how residents from all over Singapore come to enjoy community events and activities here. Minister Masagos is attending a meeting overseas, and he sends his best wishes to everyone.

Strengthening the community through education and employment

MENDAKI and your many community partners have been contributing significantly to the Malay / Muslim community over the years. You have been encouraging and supporting learning, and bringing the community together to learn. Initiatives such as the Kelas Mate Matika (KMM), MENDAKI Tuition Programme, and MENDAKI Homework Cafes provide academic support to students of all ages. Scholarships, and mentorship programmes with companies such as MSD Pharma, Micron, MiRXES and GIC, help prepare our youth for their careers. I thank M³ partners MUIS and MESRA, Malay / Muslim community partners like AMP, PPIS and LBKM, and all other partners for your contributions.

Your efforts complement Government initiatives very well. As a result, education outcomes for the Malay / Muslim community at all levels have improved. Today, almost every Malay student successfully completes 10 years of education in primary and secondary school - a big improvement compared to when MENDAKI was first set up 40 years ago. At the tertiary level, 8 in 10 of our youths aged 25 to 34 have post-secondary or higher qualifications. A range of pathways are available at ITEs, polytechnics, and universities, which cater to a variety of interests and aptitudes. Our latest two universities - the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) offer applied degree programmes which blend academic knowledge with real-world experience. Work-Study Degree and Work-Study Diploma programmes are also jointly offered with employers to better support continued training and skills upgrading at all our IHLs.

With a strong foundation in education, our people can benefit from better job prospects, higher wages, and an improved standard of living. In fact, the proportion of Malays in PMET jobs increased to 40% in 2020, up from 30% a decade ago. Many of these jobs are in growth sectors with good prospects, including health and social services, information and communication technology, and professional services including finance and insurance. These sectors are still growing. So I hope that many more will be able to seize and benefit from these opportunities.

While we have done well, we can expect change to be happening even faster than before. Hence, the core ideals of Raikan Ilmu - embracing knowledge and life-long learning - will be even more important in the coming years.

The future economy, and the future of work, will look very different in the coming years. The global economy is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Innovations such as artificial intelligence, robotics and the digital economy are transforming the way we live and work. These changes can enhance productivity, create new industries, and improve our quality of life. On the other hand, these will place new demands on us to adapt and acquire new skills, to remain relevant. This is why we introduced the Industry Transformation Maps or ITMs across 23 sectors, with Jobs & Skills as a priority in each ITM to help our workers adapt and level-up. Our refreshed ITM for the Information and Communications sector is a good example. Under this ITM, we aim to achieve average growth of 5 to 7% per annum, and generate around 80,000 well-paying jobs in sectors like software, IT services, and telecom services by 2025.

Embracing lifelong learning, and learning beyond grades

So how can we improve our approach to knowledge and learning, to better cope with these major shifts?

First, we will need to broaden the range of what we learn - to focus not just grades, but also on skills. To broaden what we learn, we need to have a strong foundation. So I encourage students to build a strong base in your languages, mathematics, and science subjects in primary school! But as our economy transforms, a wide variety of jobs will be created. Some will need traditional academic credentials, but there will be many others that require other skills. Even in established industries like manufacturing or banking, and in fact many jobs, we need a range of technical and soft skills, and to innovate and solve real-world problems. Our education system has been designed with many different pathways, to enable our students to learn in different ways, and to acquire different skills. For example, ITE and polytechnics have a strong focus on applied learning and innovation. Students can now tap on programmes to build new skills and to enter industry - such as the TechSkills Accelerator for ITE and Polytechnics Alliance, and the Polytechnic Talent for Finance Scheme.

I encourage everyone to make the best use of the Raikan Ilmu @ Heartlands to explore your passions, discover your talents, and pursue your strengths. This year, over 40 partners have come together to offer 80 exciting activities at Tampines, Jurong and Admiralty. Younger children can experience life as a news reporter at the mini studio by Mediacorp, and older students can challenge their coding skills at the virtual reality flight simulator and robotics soccer challenge by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Try these, and see what you learn!

Besides learning broadly, we must also learn throughout our lives - not just in school, but at work and beyond. Every day, everywhere, can be offer us a learning experience. With constant changes, every one of us will need to continue learning if we are to stay relevant and useful. While this may be stressful, if we do not learn, we will become irrelevant - this is even worse. I encourage everyone to continue learning, and planning your career pathways. The Government will work together with companies, workers, and trade associations, to enable our workers to have the skills and opportunities for good jobs. We now have several new tripartite initiatives such as sectoral Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs) and Company Training Committees set up by NTUC. We have also enhanced support for life-long skills upgrading, such as the SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career) top-up. I encourage all of you to tap on these opportunities to support your own learning and growth.

I trust that MENDAKI and other Malay / Muslim organisations will continue their good work to support the community in life-long learning, in close partnership with our tripartite partners. This includes ground-up initiatives, including youth networking, digital literacy, and entrepreneurship skills. I am also heartened that M3 has been strengthening the process to refer Malay/Muslim workers and jobseekers to various agencies for support, such as NTUC's Employability and Employment Institute (e2i), the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, NTUC LearningHub, Workforce Singapore (WSG) and SkillsFuture Singapore. Put together, these initiatives will support the community with their life-long learning and employment needs.

Conclusion

Let me conclude with a proverb - pengayuh sudah di tangan, perahu sudah di air. The oar is in our hands, and the canoe is in the water. The first step is to start rowing - start learning. Everyone will need to paddle in your own way, and some may have different destinations from others. But the key is to keep moving forward on your own journey.

The Raikan Ilmu is an excellent initiative by MENDAKI to rally the community to celebrate knowledge and embrace lifelong learning. Congratulations to MENDAKI and all partners. I wish all a successful and fruitful month as you make full use of the events and exhibitions to embark on your learning journey.

Terima Kasih!