Abstract
Soft skills, core competencies and generic competencies are exchangeable terminologies often used to represent a similar concept. In Singapore, such skills are currently being referred to as Critical Core Skills (CCS). To understand how CCS are demanded and developed in different occupations of the Singapore workforce, this study adopted a mixed method approach. Drawing on the CCS framework developed by Skills Future Singapore (SSG) in 2019, a survey instrument was developed to measure the importance and self- efficacy of the use of CCS. Drawing on the results from 2500 participants, we managed to profile them into seven occupation groups based on the different patterns of importance and self-efficacy. Each occupation group is labelled according to the most salient and demanded CCS. Concurrently, the CCS which may require further strengthening were also identified for each occupation group. A purposive sample was then drawn from survey participants based on the profiled occupation groups, for a follow-up semi-structured interview with the aim to understand how these selected participants used and developed the most demanded and least demanded CCS in various contextual settings. In total, 39 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interview questions focused on the tasks under each CCS to get a sense of their use and development of these skills. Adopting the situated learning theory (SLT), the development pathways of CCS for these participants were drawn out. Practical recommendations on how training in various settings could further facilitate the development of CCS were also provided.
Author Information
Xiao Fang Bi, Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore
Bao Zhen Tan, Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore
Simon Freebody, Private Consultant, Australia
Paper Information
Conference: IICE2023
Stream: Adult
This paper is part of the IICE2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Bi X., Tan B., & Freebody S. (2023) Critical Core Skills Profiling and Development in the Singaporean Workforce ISSN: 2189-1036 – The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2023 Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2023.50
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2023.50
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