24/10/2017

Inaugural Batch Of Five Adult Education Fellows Recognised For Their Exemplary Contributions

SkillsFuture Singapore has accorded the highest award to five Adult Education (AE) professionals who set the benchmark for quality and excellence, and who serve as role models. These individuals are conferred as Adult Education Fellows (AEFs) at the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL)’s fifth graduation ceremony today, officiated by Senior Minister of State for Education and Communications and Information, Dr Janil Puthucheary. 

Under the national Adult Education Professionalisation (AEP) initiative, the AEF is accorded to exemplary AE professionals who are at the pinnacle of their AE practices and have made significant contributions in their relevant Training and Adult Education (TAE) fields of practice.  

The five AEFs honoured are: 

⦁ Professor Annie Koh, Professor of Finance (Practice), Singapore Management University
⦁ Professor Christopher Chia, Professor (Practice), NUS Business School
⦁ Chef Eric Teo, Master Mentor, Asian Culinary Institute 
⦁ Associate Professor Lim Swee Hia, Senior Director, SingHealth Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing
⦁ Professor Lim Yeow Khee, President, Singapore Institute of Aerospace Engineers

More information on each of the AEFs is in Annex A. 

As recognised industry veterans, these AEFs will continue to contribute to the TAE sector in the following ways: i) Being a role model and mentor to inspire and nurture TAE professionals, ii) Advocating collaboration at the industry, national or international level, iii) Shaping learning and practices in the TAE community, iv) Fostering growth, seeding new ideas and being a catalyst of innovation, and v) Influencing and driving TAE initiatives. 

Piloted in 2015 by IAL, the AEP initiative aims to advance the standards of AE professionals and to be recognised for their pedagogical and professional excellence as an Associate Adult Educator, Specialist Adult Educator or Adult Education Fellow at the pinnacle. To date, more than 600 AE professionals have been recognised under the AEP initiative. They possess diverse expertise in the domains of TAE, Leadership and Management, Workplace Safety and Health, Infocomm Technology, Transport, Engineering and Hospitality. Annex B contains more information on the AEP initiative. 

Inaugural SkillsFuture Study Award for the TAE Sector 

The SkillsFuture Study Award for the TAE sector was also presented to first batch of 30 recipients at the same ceremony. This award encourages professionals under the AEP initiative to pursue skills mastery and deepen their professional competencies. Each successful recipient will receive a monetary award of $5,000 which can be used to defray out-of-pocket expenses associated with their training for skills mastery. Please refer to Annex C for more information on the SkillsFuture Study Award for the TAE sector. 

Chief Executive of SkillsFuture Singapore, Mr Ng Cher Pong, said, “The quality of Adult Educators is critical to the success of SkillsFuture, in helping to up-skill and re-skill our workforce. We are therefore excited to welcome the first five Adult Education Fellows. All of them are outstanding role models who have shown great dedication towards raising professional standards in the Training and Adult Education sector, and who inspire other Adult Educators to strive for excellence in their practice. We look forward to their continued contributions, especially in efforts to further raise the quality and professionalism of the sector.”

Annex A - LIST OF ADULT EDUCATION FELLOWS

Annex B - FACTSHEET ON ADULT EDUCATION PROFESSIONALISATION (AEP) INITIATIVE