25/02/2015

Education and Career Guidance (ECG)

Strengthening Education And Career Guidance

1. To help individuals make better informed education and career choices in school and beyond graduation, a more structured and comprehensive Education and Career Guidance (ECG) system will be put in place to provide relevant and timely support to individuals at different life stages. National efforts led by MOE and WDA will be coordinated across public sector agencies, and in collaboration with industry partners. Key initiatives in the near term are outlined below.

Key Initiatives

2. Improved ECG for students at the Post-Secondary Educational Institutions. Students from polytechnics and ITE will receive more systematic ECG through a common set of ECG outcomes and learning objectives, which were jointly developed by MOE and the post-secondary education institutions to improve the quality and consistency of ECG provided. This will be delivered over a minimum duration of 40-60 hours across two years for ITE students and three years for polytechnic students starting from January 2015 for first-year ITE students and April 2015 for first-year polytechnic students. The content will focus on helping students develop skills to make career choices and transit from schools to the workplace. Learning objectives are incorporated into existing academic modules and dedicated lessons on career-related topics. The curriculum will also be delivered through out-ofclassroom activities including industry immersion programmes, talks, workshops, and individual and group career guidance sessions. The Autonomous Universities (AUs) are also enhancing their existing career services to equip students with greater occupational and industry knowledge through closer links with industry professionals and career advising.

3. ECG Counsellors for schools, polytechnics and ITE. MOE is in the process of recruiting ECG Counsellors to help students make better informed education and career choices in school and beyond graduation. They will work with schools, polytechnics and the ITE to provide a quality ECG experience for students. They will also seek to establish partnerships with industries and government agencies to obtain labour market information and information on industry trends, as well as study and career options. These counsellors are expected to be deployed to schools, polytechnics and ITE from July 2015. Each polytechnic and ITE college will have six ECG Counsellors. For every five secondary schools/Junior Colleges/Centralised Institute, there will be one assigned ECG Counsellor. At steady state, there will be close to 100 ECG counsellors serving all secondary schools, junior colleges/Centralised Institute, polytechnics and ITE.

4. Career and training advisory services. WDA will continue to tailor its career and training advisory services to the needs of different workforce segments, either through personalised services at the WDA Career Centres and CaliberLink, or through more self-help career resources, such as the Jobs Bank (www.jobsbank.gov.sg), and the Tripartite Career Resource Portal (www.careerresource.sg) which provides resources to individuals to strengthen their career development. WDA will look into ways to improve and deepen its outreach to individuals, which include the provision of 2/2 labour market information to assist them in making better-informed career and training choices.

5. Capability building of ECG practitioners. ECG practitioners in schools, WDA Career Centres, CaliberLink and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) will undergo structured and accredited training programmes to ensure that they have the requisite career counselling, guidance and advisory capabilities and opportunities to deepen their skills.

6. One-stop online portal. ECG efforts will be supported by a one-stop online portal. The portal is targeted to be released in phases, starting from 2017. It will offer customised profiling and assessment tools and resources, as well as information on the education, training and career options available for individuals at different life stages. For more details, please refer to the information sheet on the "Individual Learning Portfolio".