With the Skillsfuture initiative in S’pore, I have had the opportunity since 2017 to participate in multiple training courses to learn and improve myself as part of my lifelong learning journey into the next part of my halftime path.
I had taken courses that included a specialist diploma in Business Analytics, understanding financial statements, Aquaponics, Science and Business of Wine, Blockchain (Seoul), eCommerce (Alibaba Hangzhou) and a number of MOOC online modules. I usually look for a training course on a specific topic that seems interesting to me.
With an unlimited 90% subsidy for any citizens above 40 years old and a database of 25,000+ courses to choose from, there is no excuse for me not to continue my lifelong learning journey. Anyone can just do a keyword search at www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg and all the relevant courses will be listed. Keyword search for Photography revealed 182 possible course choices!
The additional $1.5k of Skillsfuture funding provided to each Singaporean can also be used for the balance of the 10% payable too. This process of claiming had also been streamlined after a number of high profile fraud cases that happened in 2017. Certified trainers now will claim these funds directly from Skillsfuture on behalf of the student at the start of the course. Students need not bother themselves with paying it first from out of their own pockets and then waiting till the end of the training to claim for it.
As Covid19 hit us with its full impact in 2020, more job losses have occurred. The government had to accelerate a new initiative to help job seekers pivot to new economy roles. Most of the traditional roles had been made obsolete by the pandemic and technology. Mid-career workers who were stuck in the past needed help to switch to new economy careers.
At the end of Q3, the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways program was kickstarted. Google and IBM were the first 2 corporations that began the registration process for this new initiative to help older citizens pivot into new technology sectors. I had wanted to sign up initially but was hesitant then as I was in discussions to start a new business venture and had also just completed a consultancy project, plus there was my ongoing work with the Myanmar microfinance firm. Given that this was a full-time course and they had stated that it is only for those who are currently unemployed, I was unsure if I qualified.
I shared the one from IBM (https://webibmcourse.mybluemix.net/SGUnitedProgramme) with some of my friends to encourage them to join. The terms were very generous. The 6 months full-time course cost $20k and it was heavily subsidized to the tune of $19.5k while the balance of $500 can be paid using our Skillsfuture funds. On top of that, if you attend at least 75% of the classes every month, you will get a student allowance of $1.5k per month. This is as good as it gets and IBM offered 2 streams for this offering: Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity.
I was happy to learn later that 2 of my friends registered for these courses and started in Oct. They should be done by next month and hopefully be placed out for a full-time job then. Both of them were unemployed last year and it suited their schedule at that time to enter into a full-time training program. There was also a free option for students to drop out of the course anytime without penalties if they find a full-time job during the 6 months training.
I have regular catch-ups with both of my friends and their feedback was positive. Given that my business venture eventually did not take off, I decided to apply for the AI course in Jan. Luckily, the last batch will start in Feb and I was offered a position in it. I had also been doing my Myanmar consultancy remotely for the last 12 months due to Covid19 and then the military coup happened on 01 Feb. That means more remote consultancy for the foreseeable future. IBM has also acknowledged that some participants could be doing part-time work and so they relaxed their definition of unemployed status.
The stars seemed to have aligned for me to make me take this AI training. My friends in the course have also been sharing the course materials with me too. To date, IBM had already signed up almost 1,000 students, so I was lucky to be able to join the last class they had. If the government does not provide further financial support into 2021, we will be the last batch for them. It will also be a refresher training for me since my last course on Business Analytics at Temasek Polytechnic in 2018.
We had the orientation session on 17 Feb and I found out that all classes will be held online via Zoom except for the exams where we have to go in person to the centres to sit for them. It will be a new experience for me as I had never participated in virtual classroom training before. Hence there was some personal apprehension.
The course officially started this week. On 22 Feb, I discovered that there were 21 of us in this class. In this last cohort of the IBM training, there is a total of 3 AI classes and I was in group 1, student number 16. We logged onto Zoom just before 9 am for various administration processes to complete and do class attendance via QR codes and Zoom class photo-taking twice a day. The attendance process is an audit process to qualify for the student allowance (at least 75% attendance required per month). This will be automatically credited via PayNow to each of us by the end of the first week of each month.
With short breaks and an hour for lunch in between, daily classes were from 9 am to 5.30 pm and we had a free day on Wed this week. Thanks to new technology, the Zoom class really felt like we were all in a physical classroom. There was more privacy as each of us was in our own little den and can turn off the video when our breaks started. Zoom backgrounds can also be altered with various templates to hide our messy rooms too 🙂
The trainers were very professional and experienced by now. It is probably because we were the 9th batch they were conducting classes for. This week was basically an intro to the world of AI before we start to dive deeper into specific topics during the next 6 months. We had 2 days of “Getting started with AI”, followed by a rest day on Wed and then 2 more days of “AI in business”.
There were various short lab sessions to introduce the class to some of the systems we will be using, like IBM Watson Studio/Discovery/Maximo and Mural. Next week will be the first in-depth module on Enterprise Design Thinking to train us on how AI projects should be organized, to provide the correct infrastructure to lead the process from end to end. Then the next 3 modules would be Cloud Computing, Data Science and AI Practitioner with projects and multiple-choice questions exams in between.
The 1st week has been off to a positive start. I am looking forward to learning more and getting to know my classmates better in this 6 months learning journey.
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