Progress of Developing IT and AI Professionals through Career Conversion Programmes

13 Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) in the past three years, what has been the progress of developing more Information and Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) professionals under the Career Conversion Programme; and (b) what is the Ministry’s plan in further developing this in the next three to five years.

The Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information (Mr Tan Kiat How) (for the Minister for Digital Development and Information): Sir, there are multiple pathways for Singaporeans to acquire relevant skills for technology-related jobs. These include the more than 1,300 artificial intelligence (AI)-related courses offered by SkillsFuture Singapore as well as career conversion programmes supported by Workforce Singapore, which may also help Singaporeans take up jobs requiring AI-related skills.

Over the past three years, the Career Conversion Programme (CCP) and the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) programme have helped more than 1,000 and 8,000 mid-career workers, respectively, to transition into technology roles, such as software and cloud professionals and AI engineers.

To strengthen our pipeline from mid-career workers, we are: (a) expanding the Company-Led Training programme under TeSA to organisations that are building AI Centres of Excellence; and (b) topping-up SkillsFuture Credits for Singaporeans aged 40 and above, under the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme to support substantive upskilling and reskilling programmes.

These initiatives complement our broader efforts to expand the pipeline of AI practitioners, including enhancing the AI-readiness of information and digital technology (IDT) graduates from our Institutes of Higher Learning. Our industry partners have also initiated programmes to train and hire AI practitioners, such as AI Singapore's AI Apprenticeship programme, Singtel's Catalyst programme and Temus’ Step IT Up programme.

Mr Speaker: Mr Ang Wei Neng.

Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the comprehensive reply. Can I have a couple of supplementary questions?

Firstly, can the Senior Minister of State explain if there is a big difference between an IT professional and an AI professional? Because the Estimates Committee noted that the CCP through the Ministry, has produced 190 individuals who are able to transit to become AI professionals as mid-career people.

I want to ask whether they have plans to increase these conversion programmes, in terms of the frequency of the programmes and the number of programmes? Because the Ministry has stated that they want to convert 5,000 mid-career professionals to AI professionals over the next three to five years. The number 190 compared to 5,000, is quite a far cry. How have the private sectors chipped in and how many mid-career professionals have they converted to become AI professionals?

Mr Tan Kiat How: Sir, I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. It may be useful for me to set the context of the figures that he has cited. In December 2023, we launched the refreshed National AI Strategy 2.0, which sets out our vision and plans to achieve AI for the public good for Singapore and the world. To support this ambition, we intend to expand our pool of AI practitioners and uplift our workforce to be confident AI users.

AI practitioners, as mentioned by the Member, are fundamental to support AI transformation across the economy. We intend to triple the number of AI practitioners in Singapore from 5,000 to 15,000 in the next three to five years to meet the anticipated demand. We will look to re-skilling and upskilling our locals to take on these roles. To develop the additional 10,000 AI practitioners, we are looking at a few approaches.

One is to boost the AI-readiness of existing IDT graduates pipeline, about 5,000. So, these are for pre-employment training, or PET. About 10,000, 5,000 will be through the PET route. The other 5,000, we are looking at getting through the CET route – continuing education and training – mid-career transition, people who are already in the IT or the digital field and looking on to take on new skills to take on AI-related roles. So, that is the context of the figures of 10,000 and 5,000, which the Member cited.

On the 5,000 CET number, a recent Estimates Committee report noted that the CCP has, so far, only helped 190 people transit in their new roles. Allow me to set in context the 190 figure that Parliament's Estimates Committee referred to.

The 190 was referring to those who have transited through the five Jobs Transformation Map (JTM) training provider programme. What is the JTM programme? JTM is Job Transformation Map for the information and communication workforce, which was published in October 2022. That JTM report identified AI as one of the key emerging trends that will transform technology roles. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) partnered with five JTM partners to scale reskilling and upskilling efforts in AI and analytics, with an emphasis on generative AI (Gen AI) and two other in-demand areas: software engineering and cloud and mobility.

We launched the JTM Partners Programme and we are making good progress with our JTM partners since it launched in 2023, last year. So, the 190 figure was in the context of that very specific JTM training programme.

But as I mentioned earlier in my reply, we have a suite of different programmes under TeSA and under CCP which have shown good results in the past. JTM is part of this umbrella of effort that the Government is doing and there are many industry partners – I mentioned some in my earlier reply – and they are also stepping up to support mid-career transitions, supporting people who are currently in IT roles or technology roles to pick up new certifications, new skills to do new AI roles that are emerging.

I would also like to share with the Member that besides the good progress we are making with the JTM partners, we have a healthy pipeline of workers who have expressed interest to undergo the necessary CCP training.

In summary, the figures that the Estimates Committee referred to, the 190, is set in context to the specific JTM programme, which is part of the broader career conversion and TeSA skills that we are doing and part of the broader AI talent manpower strategy that we have embarked on.