SINGAPORE – In Finland, all 38 higher education institutions have joined forces to offer more flexible lifelong learning opportunities on a single platform.

Singapore, which has a similar population size to Finland but a smaller land area, has the potential to develop such a platform in its efforts to meet the needs of lifelong learners, said Friday 17 June Education Minister Chan Chun Sing.

The Republic has already invested heavily in the first 15 years of school life – but needs to look at things from a new angle focusing also on the next 50 years of learning, he said.

He added: “We need to break this artificial divide between study and work. In fact, we need a new ‘work-learning balance’.”

Mr Chan said there had been discussions on how to organize the best or most relevant modules in educational institutions on a platform for adult learners.

The President of the National University of Singapore, Tan Eng Chye, said the six autonomous universities here have different expertise and strengths that can be leveraged to run highly targeted programs for Continuing Education (CET) learners. .

Singapore Management University President Lily Kong noted the collaborations between universities in research, postdoctoral and undergraduate programs, adding: “But the CET space is the only space I think we haven’t really thought about it and it seems to offer a real opportunity.”

The Finnish initiative, called Digivisio 2030, will use big data and artificial intelligence to offer personalized advice to students, taking into account their background, educational background, work experience and labor market situation, said Professor Ilkka Niemela, Chairman of Aalto. University in Finland.

The platform will then “flexibly combine offerings from different universities to really try to meet the individual needs of students,” he said.

The remarks came at the close of a meeting of the 12th International Academic Advisory Group at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Millenia Singapore from Wednesday to Friday.

The committee, appointed by the Ministry of Education (MOE), meets approximately every three years. The current panel includes a diverse group of 15 academic and industry leaders from around the world such as Japan, China, Israel, Australia, and the United States, among others.

It is chaired by the Chief Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policy, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

In his opening remarks at Thursday’s meeting, he said there was a need to prepare young people and equip them differently for the challenges and opportunities of the new phase the world finds itself in, which is testing resilience. and determination.

He questioned the balance between input-oriented learning – knowledge is drawn from different areas – and problem-oriented learning – where learning is organized around challenges faced, such as challenges climate change, aging societies or the challenges of maintaining peace.

“These are not mutually exclusive options. We may need a range of models. But we need to decide on the fundamental shifts in the balance between these options for a new future, within each university and in the whole system,” he said.