Singapore’s workforce is facing shifting demands for labour in the face of a rapidly ageing population. Changes in the demographic composition and education profile are driving a major structural change in Singapore’s economy. To further complicate the issue, this workforce shift is taking place as Singapore is up against rapid technological advancements and globalization. With advancements in technology and the increasing use of artificial intelligence, a range of existing jobs will be automated in the next 20 years, and robotics will be a major influencer for job creation in the next five years (Arntz, Gregory and Zierahn, 2016).

Repetitive and low-skilled jobs are already being replaced by technology. Such changes in all sectors of industry will require an enormous number of technically proficient workforce with specialised skills to maintain and enhance development of future technologies. A growing portion of the workforce run the risk of being irrelevant and the skills gap is becoming an ever-widening chasm. This gap will expand as technological and automation advances increase further.

As the job scene evolves skills has been branded as the “global currency of 21st-century economies” (OECD, 2012, p. 10). There are both cognitive skills (such as lit­eracy or numeracy skills) as well as non-cognitive skills (such as physical or soft skills). Research has shown cog­nitive skills to be positively correlate with the individual success in labour market, participation in society as well as economic growth (Hanushek, Schwerdt, Wiederhold, & Woessmann, 2015; OECD, 2013).  Economies are facing a skills gap where a growing portion of the population run the risk of being irrelevant. The skills gap will expand as technological and automation advances increase further.

Skills gap in the working population have a negative impact on labour productivity. Reducing the skills gap has shown to deliver a boost in efficiency of about 10 percent (OECD, 2015, 2016). The re-distribution of skills has significant implications for reskilling and upskilling polices. A lifelong learning culture is needed to engage learners as well as those in the workforce in overcoming these growing challenges. The role of life-long learning in enhancing a society’s competitiveness and employability, social inclusion, and active citizenship has been acknowledged for some time. Developing the right skills in respond to the changing labour market plays a crucial role. Continuing (CET) education, adult education and vocational education and training (VET) are key players in this role. According to a 2015 study, there’s a clear and compelling correlation between workforce competencies and the strength of a country’s economy (OECD, 2015).

The focus of the paper is to analyse the Singapore’s PIAAC literacy performance by comparing the acquired literacy skills by different age groups. The key aim is for a better understanding of the relationship between literacy skills and the adult working population. This study expands the available research on literacy losses and ageing (OECD 2012, 2013, 2016) and lends support to the development of key policies to strength the skills upgrading pipeline of an adult population to support the economy.

Adult learning  and vocational education policies exist in most of Europe. The focus on lifelong learning was re-emphasized with the revised Strategy Europe 2020 (European Commission, 2010). This paper will also looks at the success of adult learning and vocational educational movements in other countries and examines critical need to promote adult and vocational learning in Singapore through a national initiative called SkillsFuture.

The primary data source of this paper is Signapore's literacy scores in Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The PIAAC, conducted by OECD, assessed literacy, numeracy, and technology-related skills of adults’ age 16 to 65. Implemented between August 2011 and March 2015, PIAAC provides internationally comparable data about skills of the adult population in 33 countries. Learning new skills is difficult without sound basic literacy skill, while strong literacy proficiency has been associated with better performance on the labour market (OECD, 2013). Literacy skills are considered to be “key information-processing skills” relevant for adults in many social contexts and working situations and necessary for fully integration and participation in the labour market, education and training, and social and civic life. Together with data on literacy skills, PIAAC also offers information on respondents’ individual and workplace characteristics, for instance, occupation and skill use at work. This information is from a background questionnaire completed by the PIAAC respondents. The first round of PIAAC data, administered between August 2011 and March 2012, produced data on 24 (mostly OECD) countries (OECD, 2013). In a second round, PIAAC administered the same skill survey in an additional nine countries (including both non-OECD countries) between April 2014 and March 2015 (OECD, 2016), extending to 33 countries. The third round is conducted between 2016 and 2019. At least 5,000 adults participated in the PIAAC assessment in each country. In each participating country, a representative sample of adults between 16 and 65 years of age was interviewed at home or an agreed location in the language of their country of residence. The standard survey mode was to answer questions on a computer, but respondents without sufficient computer knowledge could also do a pencil-and-paper survey. Depending on the on the respondent, the time taken to complete the survey ranged between 30 and 45 minutes (OECD, 2012). PIAAC takes advantage of matrix-sampling, which implies that each participant is only presented with a subset of the full set of items. Item-response theory techniques are used to estimate scores on a common scale for all the participants. Singapore participated in the second round of OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). PIAAC was conducted in Singapore from 1 April 2014 to 31 January 2015. A total of 5 393 adults comprising Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents aged between 16 and 65, participated in the PIAAC.

Adults in Singapore aged 16 to 34 ranked ninth in the PIAAC literacy assessment. However, older adults aged 45 to 65 performed lower than the OECD literacy average. Among the 33 participating economies, Singapore has the largest difference in scores between the older and younger cohorts, showing significant sub-group differences. The survey showed that more than one in four adults in Singapore (26.1 per cent) are proficient at or below Level One in literacy — compared with the OECD average of 18.9 per cent. Singapore stands out as the country with the largest variability in literacy, at 77 score points, compared with the OECD average of 62. Key findings include: •Compared with adults (16-65 year-olds) in the OECD countries that participated in the survey, adults in Singapore show below-average proficiency in literacy and numeracy, but above-average proficiency in problem solving in technology-rich environments. •Singapore young adults aged 16-24 performed better than the OECD average in literacy, and had the highest average score among participating countries in numeracy. By contrast, older adults, particularly 55-65 year-olds, attained some of the lowest scores in literacy and numeracy among all participating countries. •The dispersion of scores is wider in Singapore than in other participating countries/economies. With this wide skills gap, progressive ageing of the working population and the rapid spread of technology and rise of artificial intelligence, the job landscape is undergoing fundamental shifts. Singapore recognises the need to upskill the workforce in order to maintain economic growth. The government views lifelong vocational learning as a key strategy towards facilitating productivity and employability. SkillsFuture, a 2015 national movement, was unveiled to encourage lifelong learning and the enhancement of work skills. One key goal is to “develop an integrated, high -quality system of education and training that responds to constantly evolving industry needs” (SkillsFuture, 2015).

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