More Curriculum Time for Education and Career Guidance in Secondary Schools

11 Mr Shawn Loh asked the Minister for Education given the need to inculcate a habit amongst Singaporeans to plan ahead for their own skills, whether the four hours per year of curriculum time for Education and Career Guidance in secondary schools can be increased with support from external vendors, to expose students to more career opportunities, so that young Singaporeans can start dreaming of possibilities earlier in life.

The Minister of State for Education (Ms Jasmin Lau) (for the Minister for Education): The Ministry of Education (MOE) recognises the importance of guiding students to develop a greater awareness of their strengths and their interests, and explore various education and career pathways at each stage of their educational journey.

Curriculum time that is spent on education and career guidance (ECG) is complemented by student development experiences beyond the classroom. These can include visits to institutes of higher learning, career fairs and talks, learning journeys to organisations and job-shadowing opportunities. Through these programmes, industry practitioners are able to share their experiences and highlight skills required in their respective fields, giving our students early exposure to career possibilities.

To support students in self-directed exploration, the MySkillsFuture Student Portal is available to students from Primary 5. Tertiary students have access to the MySkillsFuture Workforce Portal. Through its suite of tools, students can deep dive into self-discovery, understand their own interests, values and abilities, and explore the range of education and career pathways available to them.

Access to ECG counsellors is also available to students from secondary schools and pre-university institutions who require more guidance in exploring suitable education pathways and career possibilities.

MOE reviews our curriculum regularly and we will continue to review curriculum time allocation to ensure that students are well-supported in their holistic development, including in education and career guidance.

Mr Speaker: Mr Loh.

Mr Shawn Loh (Jalan Besar): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for her response as well. I asked this question because when I first looked into the issue, four hours seemed short. But the Minister of State has clarified that there is more ECG than just the four hours of curriculum time, so I am grateful.

We discussed extensively about skills and careers yesterday, and I am sure we will do so more today. The Minister for Manpower said, no less than five times in his speech, that we need mindset shifts. And shifting mindsets start from school. So, my question to MOE is whether ECG is considered core to the curriculum, and not extra. And if so, can we increase the standards and the resources for ECG? Because we teach chemistry very well, and maybe we can do the same with career guidance. We teach geography very well, and maybe we can do the same for job awareness.

Ms Jasmin Lau: Sir, I thank the Member for his question. I think there are many skills that are key to our students' future development and career success, so this is not a competition between subjects. We must ensure that all students have good access to both knowledge acquisition as well as career preps for the future.

As I mentioned in my reply, we will be continuing to review curriculum time allocation, and all the more we need to do so in the age of artificial intelligence, where a lot more focus will be on human skills that are increasingly important for our students.