Draw skilled labour from the region by exporting Singapore’s tertiary education

Singapore faces a set of compelling and reinforcing challenges. First, it has a very small population, just under four million citizens and permanent residents as of 2017. Second, this population is ageing rapidly.

One in three will be over the age of 65 by 2030. The flip side of this is shrinking cohorts of new workers joining the labour force each year, alongside a rising threshold for skills as the economy shifts to a concentration in services.

The upshot of these demographic pressures is that the Singapore economy is starved of labour, specifically skilled labour.

Sectors such as financial services, technology start-ups and engineering are facing labour crunches and consequent upward wage pressures which diminish competitiveness.

The solution historically had been to import labour from overseas sources.

However, after the political shock of the 2011 general election which saw the ruling People’s Action Party’s share of popular vote dip by 6.5 per cent in part due to the electorate’s angst towards the flow of immigrants, the government has significantly tightened its foreign manpower policies.

In recent years, its economic focus, and its recourse to labour needs, has been India and China – two very large economies with historical cultural and ethnic ties to Singapore.

However, there is great potential for Singapore to look to Asean member states as both sources of demand for its products and services and sources of supply for its skilled labour needs.

The need for labour is not only a matter of numbers but an issue of quality. We need skilled labour that can easily assimilate into and add value to our economy.

An effective way to ensure both is to intervene structurally in the higher education and training systems of selected Asean economies, notably Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Singapore has a history of attracting students from the region to our Institutes of Higher Learning.

However, these are typically the socio-economic elites who can afford the high cost of international fees and living costs in Singapore.

Recruiting students to study domestically would allow for the burgeoning middle-class to access Singapore standard education in their home countries.

Having the largest population in Asean, Indonesia is also geographically closest to Singapore after Malaysia.

Indonesia has a young mass eager to learn and seek better opportunities.

Over 60 percent of its 266 million people live in urban cities and 50 per cent of the total population are under the age of 30.

Likewise, 44 per cent of 100 million Filipinos live in urban concentrations and the median age of the Philippines’ population is just 23 years.

Vietnam too has a youthful urban population and a small but fast expanding middle class. Its economy has enjoyed strong growth over the last two decades and it stands to gain from the boom in trade from China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Thirty per cent of Vietnam’s 90 million citizens live in cities and half of the population are under the age of 25.

All three economies therefore have common characteristics of young populations, expanding middle classes and well-established urban concentrations.

Notably, all three also enjoy good relations with Singapore.

These characteristics create the ideal environment for Singapore to project our IHLs such as polytechnics and universities into their urban concentrations.

Imagine, a Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Yogjakarta, a Republic Polytechnic Ho Chi Minh City or a Singapore Management University (SMU) Manila.

Singapore’ proven curriculum as well as expertise in administration and management would ensure that standards and concomitant accreditation are on par with Singapore norms.

We should focus on exporting only skill-based and professional programmes.

This is because in addition to providing educational opportunities that are relatively lacking in these markets, Singapore could further incentivise enrolment by granting the top 20 per cent of graduates preferential immigration clearance to work in Singapore.

We could then reliably meet our labour needs from both a confidence in quantity of supply and in its quality.

Singapore students could also undertake exchange studies and in a reciprocal fashion benefit from preferential immigration terms to work or establish businesses in the host economies.

Singapore and the host countries should collaborate to ensure feasibility.

Singapore has the means, at the state level, to capitalise the investments through infrastructure financing and staffing.

The host countries can allocate suitable land and emplace supporting infrastructure such as transport links and utility trunks.

IHLs that participate should be those with a focus on skills and technology such as the SUTD, SMU, Singapore Institute of Technology and Singapore University of Social Sciences.

These institutions are younger than the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. Their smaller size, educational focus and short history make them nimble and flexible.

Beyond the benefits to the Singapore economy, the host countries would also benefit from the investments. It would underscore Singapore’s and their commitment to Asean as a shared community.  

One way to overcome national sensitivities is to structure the projects as collaborations with suitable selected domestic IHLs.

The campuses can be co-branded to reflect the partnerships. Collaboration would give host countries the benefits of status and of transfers of skills and knowledge.

It is time both for Singapore to think out of the box for solutions to its labour crunch as well as for Asean to do more substantively to underscore its claims to be a shared community and to promote a common identity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Devadas Krishnadas is chief executive of Future-Moves Group, an international strategic consultancy and executive education provider based in Singapore.