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A new model that guides individuals from skills discovery to career progression, and enterprises from workforce diagnosis to capability building.
SINGAPORE, 12 October 2026 – The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) today announced the establishment of the SIT School of Lifelong Learning and Career Development, also known as SITLEARN, a new school that goes beyond course delivery to connect skills assessment, continuing education, career development, industry partnerships and applied workforce research within one integrated model. SITLEARN is designed to help individuals navigate changing careers and support enterprises in building future-ready workforces. The announcement was made at the main session of SIT’s Convocation 2026 ceremony, graced by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information.
Artificial intelligence, digitalisation, other technological advancements and longer working lives are reshaping industries and careers. As Singapore advances towards a skills-first economy, individuals increasingly need more than access to training. They need support to understand and validate their capabilities, identify emerging skills needs that align with their career goals, acquire relevant knowledge, navigate career transitions and remain employable throughout longer and more dynamic working lives.
Enterprises face a parallel challenge. As technology transforms operating models and creates new roles, organisations need more effective ways to diagnose workforce capabilities, identify skills gaps, develop talent, and build the capabilities required for business transformation. Many organisations, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, may not have the in-house resources to design and manage this journey on their own.
One Model, Two Connected Journeys
For individuals, SITLEARN creates a personalised pathway from skills discovery to career progression. A working adult may begin by assessing and validating existing skills, before receiving a personalised recommended learning pathway aligned with their career goals. They can then build capabilities through flexible and stackable programmes, access career coaching and connect with relevant employers and career advancement opportunities. Building on SIT’s established career development services for full-time undergraduates and alumni, SITLEARN extends this support to adult learners enrolled in selected longer-form continuing education and training programmes.
For enterprises, SITLEARN provides a coordinated path from workforce diagnosis to capability building and impact. Organisations may begin with a workforce skills diagnosis, co-design targeted programmes with SIT, and leverage assessment and research insights to guide workforce capability development and future talent strategies. For organisations requiring deeper support, SITLEARN can explore corporate academy partnerships that bring together programme design, skills assessment, career services, industry engagement and applied research within one institutional relationship.
Together, these journeys create a continuous feedback loop: industry needs shape learning, and skilled talent strengthens enterprises.
Image 1: The SITLEARN model connects the learner journey to the enterprise workforce development journey.
“The challenge facing both workers and employers today is not simply access to more training, but knowing what skills matter, how to acquire them and how to translate them into career and business outcomes,” said Mr Bernard Nee, Deputy President (Industry & Community), SIT, and Dean, SITLEARN. “SITLEARN brings together capabilities that are often fragmented across different providers: skills assessment, learning, career development, industry engagement and workforce intelligence. By connecting these capabilities within one ecosystem, we can help individuals make more confident career decisions while enabling enterprises to build the workforce capabilities needed to transform and compete in a rapidly changing economy.”
Four Integrated Capabilities Working as One System
SITLEARN builds on a strong foundation of capabilities established across SIT's offerings in pre-employment training (PET) and continuing education and training (CET). Through the new school, these capabilities have been brought together under four interconnected pillars, so that assessment informs learning, learning connects to career progression and workforce outcomes, and research and workforce intelligence continuously strengthen programme design, learner support and workforce-development strategies.
Image 2: The four integrated pillars of SITLEARN support lifelong career development and workforce transformation.
Key Features of the Integrated Model
A: Programmes Designed Around Emerging Market Needs
As industries evolve in response to technological changes, the energy transition, shifting regulatory landscapes and new ways of working, new capability gaps continue to emerge. SIT works with industry to identify these gaps early and develop timely, relevant learning pathways, including specialist certificates, stackable micro-credentials, postgraduate programmes and shorter continuing education modules. SITLEARN’s latest programme offerings address emerging workforce needs across three key areas:
AI Capability, Governance and Responsible Adoption: Beyond Technical Literacy
As organisations accelerate AI adoption, concerns around data breaches, bias, assurance, accountability and unintended AI behaviour are becoming more pressing. SITLEARN is developing a suite of programmes with Straits Interactive, a leading provider of AI governance and data protection advisory and training, to strengthen AI capability across the workforce, leadership and organisational levels. The suite will cover applied AI capability, AI governance, risk and assurance, and AI psychology. It goes beyond technical literacy to address the human, organisational and governance dimensions required to adopt, deploy and scale AI responsibly.
Digital Infrastructure: Green Data Centre Capabilities
As Singapore’s data centre sector scales to support cloud and AI workloads, demand is growing for professionals with specialised capabilities in resilient and sustainable data centre operations. SIT and Nxera, the data centre business of Singtel’s Digital InfraCo, are co-developing two stackable Green Data Centre micro-credentials: the Specialist Certificate in Electrical Systems and Energy Management and the Specialist Certificate in Data Centre Cooling System Design.
Energy Transition: Managing New Safety and Risk Profiles
The expansion of energy storage systems, electric mobility and other emerging technologies is creating complex safety and risk profiles, requiring new capabilities and expertise to manage effectively. SIT’s new Master of Science in Safety and Risk, with a specialisation in Fire Safety Engineering, developed in collaboration with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), prepares professionals to assess, manage and mitigate emerging risks associated with the energy transition.
Further details on each programme are provided in the Annex.
Industry’s role in teaching and mentoring: Corporate Adjunct Professorship Scheme
Workforce transformation requires industry to take an active stake in education. SITLEARN’s Corporate Adjunct Professorship Scheme is built on this premise. Rather than identifying individuals and inviting them to take on adjunct professorships independently, SIT seeks out companies that regard developing people through education as part of their organisational purpose. SIT then works with these companies to identify their staff who have the expertise and passion to teach, mentor and coach alongside their industry careers. Participating companies formally recognise and support their staff’s education and training activities as part of their professional roles.
For participating companies, this represents an institutional commitment to workforce development that goes beyond sponsoring training. Over time, the model can build a pipeline of practitioner-educators who remain active in their fields while contributing to the next generation of talent. It also opens a career pathway for industry professionals that spans both practice and education without requiring them to leave industry. NCS is the first company to partner with SITLEARN under its Corporate Adjunct Professorship Scheme, reflecting a shared commitment to workforce and talent development. Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sam Liew, will take on an Adjunct Professor appointment in SIT, a signal of leadership commitment to this scheme. Further details on the collaboration are provided in the Annex.
Recognising that industry expertise alone does not guarantee effective teaching, SIT equips practitioners with the andragogical and facilitation capabilities needed to engage adult learners. Through structured onboarding, faculty development and professional communities, practitioners develop as educators, mentors and coaches while learning from peers across industry and academia. They can, in turn, bring these capabilities back to their organisations to enhance workplace learning, mentoring and talent development.
B: Skills Assessment and Validation
In a skills-first economy, knowing what you can do and being able to prove it matters as much as the learning itself. For individuals, it provides a clearer picture of their capabilities, supports targeted learning decisions and strengthens their standing with employers. For organisations, it supports more precise workforce diagnosis and effective talent development strategies.
SITLEARN develops assessment tools and frameworks in partnership with industry and public agencies. With the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), SITLEARN is developing tech-enabled assessment tools for the Certificate of Accomplishment in Basic Dementia Care. The tools will enable Community Care professionals completing dementia care training to assess their competencies against an independent national standard, giving them greater confidence in the value of their certification and clearer recognition by employers.
To help organisations navigate AI adoption more effectively, SITLEARN has developed the AI Maturity & Readiness (AIM-R) Assessment, a tool that goes beyond technical skills to assess AI readiness across willingness, domain knowledge and adoption behaviours. The assessment provides organisations with deeper insights into workforce preparedness and can support more targeted workforce transformation and upskilling strategies. SIT is piloting the assessment with Singtel, across a cross-section of its employees, as part of their efforts to shift employee mindsets towards an AI-first organisation.
SITLEARN is working with more than 40 organisations across sectors, including hospitality, healthcare and social services agencies, on AI readiness and workforce capability-building projects, strengthening the tool's applicability across different workplace contexts.
C. Connecting Learning to Employment and Industry
SITLEARN is designed to help learners translate skills into career opportunities, while giving enterprises access to workforce insights that inform talent development and transformation strategies. Through its integrated approach to lifelong learning, skills assessment, career development and industry engagement, SITLEARN will strengthen connections between learning and employment outcomes, broaden access to industry exposure, and ensure that programmes remain aligned with evolving workforce needs.
As part of this effort, SIT is bringing onboard industry partners that complement and enhance different aspects of the SITLEARN model. Adecco Singapore is one of the first partners supporting this vision through employer engagement, career transition support, employment pathways and workforce intelligence. Further details on the collaboration are provided in the Annex.
SIT will continue to expand its network of industry and ecosystem partners as SITLEARN grows, strengthening opportunities for learners and enterprises across different sectors and workforce needs.
D: Andragogical Research for Evidence-Based High-Quality Adult Learning
SIT is leading a national research project in collaboration with the Institute for Adult Learning and other research partners to develop the Digital Adult Learning Quality Index (DALQI), a framework for measuring the quality, impact and value of digital CET courses across live-online, self-paced and hybrid formats. The project aims to establish evidence-based benchmarks that can help learners, providers and policymakers make more informed decisions about course design, quality assurance and learning outcomes. The research is supported under the Workforce Development Applied Research Fund, a national research fund offered by the Skills and Workforce Development Agency for applied research in skills, workforce development and lifelong learning.
Looking Ahead
SITLEARN will continue to expand its portfolio of industry-aligned programmes, assessment capabilities, career-development services and applied research while deepening partnerships with employers and ecosystem organisations.
To support the school’s growing role in lifelong learning and workforce transformation, SIT is developing a dedicated SITLEARN hub at the Punggol Campus. Designed as a one-stop destination, the facility, when ready in 2027, will bring together learning, skills assessment, career development and industry engagement in a purpose-built environment where individuals and enterprises can build capabilities, navigate change and grow.
About the Singapore Institute of Technology
As the university for industry and Singapore's first university of applied learning, the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) offers industry-relevant degree programmes that prepare its graduates to be work- and future-ready professionals. Its mission is to maximise the potential of its learners and to innovate with industry, through an integrated applied learning and research approach, so as to contribute to the economy and society.
The University’s unique pedagogy integrates work and study, embracing authentic learning in a real-world environment through collaborations with key strategic partners. Its focus on applied research with business impact is aimed at helping industry innovate and grow. SIT’s new centralised campus within the larger Punggol Digital District features a vibrant learning environment where academia and industry are tightly integrated with the community.
For more information, visit www.SingaporeTech.edu.sg
Annex
Industry Taking an Active Stake in Lifelong Learning and Workforce Transformation
Adecco: Career Mobility, Employment Pathways and Workforce Intelligence
Adecco complements SIT’s learning and career-development capabilities with employer connections, recruitment expertise and labour-market intelligence. Areas of collaboration being explored include talent placement, global project apprenticeships and project-based work, career-transition support, professional development for SIT career coaches, and regular sharing of hiring and future-skills insights to inform programme design and talent pipelines.
By tapping into Adecco’s network of more than 500 local clients and 100,000 global clients, SIT can broaden employer connections and surface relevant opportunities for learners and graduates.
“Making the future work for everyone starts with expanding access to opportunity. By combining SIT’s strengths in lifelong learning with The Adecco Group’s workforce expertise, employer networks and labour-market intelligence, we aim to create stronger connections between learning and employment, empowering individuals to build meaningful and sustainable careers.”
Ms Cindy Lee, Senior Vice President, Country Manager of Singapore, and Head of Cluster for Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, Adecco
Agency for Integrated Care (AIC): Strengthening National Standards in Dementia Care Training
SITLEARN is partnering with the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) to develop tech-enabled assessment tools that support more consistent evaluation of dementia care competencies across the Community Care workforce. The initiative brings together AIC and training providers to align assessment practices and strengthen quality assurance for Community Care professionals pursuing the Certificate of Accomplishment in Basic Dementia Care.
As part of the project, SITLEARN will develop assessment modules incorporating online tests, avatars and chatbots. AIC will provide funding and sector expertise to guide the development of the assessment suite and ensure alignment with the Dementia Care Competency Framework. These modules will be adopted by training providers to establish a consistent benchmark for assessing basic dementia care skills, ensuring that learners are evaluated against the same independent national standard regardless of provider.
The project will commence from November 2026 to December 2027, with a pilot involving at least 50 learners. This collaboration demonstrates how independent skills assessment can provide a more consistent benchmark for skills recognition to ensure the quality of the Community Care workforce and strengthen workforce capability development.
“Quality care starts with a skilled and competent workforce. As demand for dementia care continues to grow, we are strengthening the consistency and credibility of skills assessment across training providers, through this partnership with SITLEARN. This gives greater assurance that the Community Care workforce is well-equipped to support persons living with dementia.”
Mr Derek Tan, Chief of Manpower and Talent Division, Agency for Integrated Care
NCS: A New Model for Industry Participation in Education
As SITLEARN's pioneer partner under its Corporate Adjunct Professorship Scheme, NCS will nominate an initial cohort of its staff to serve as adjunct educators, bringing current industry perspectives into teaching, mentoring and coaching while remaining actively engaged in their professional roles. Demonstrating leadership commitment to the initiative, Sam Liew, Chief Executive Officer of NCS, will take on an Adjunct Professor appointment, underscoring the role that industry leaders can play in developing future talent and strengthening Singapore's workforce capabilities.
“As an AI-led technology services company, NCS is committed to building a strong pipeline of AI talent for Singapore’s digital future. We are honoured to be SITLEARN’s pioneer industry partner for its Corporate Adjunct Professorship Scheme. By bringing industry expertise into education and working closely with academia, we can strengthen workforce capabilities and prepare the next generation for a rapidly evolving digital economy.”
Mr Sam Liew, Chief Executive Officer, NCS
SCDF: New Master of Science in Safety & Risk
SIT is collaborating with the Singapore Civil Defence Force to develop a new Master of Science in Safety & Risk, targeted for launch in early 2027. The 60-credit programme combines three stackable graduate certificates with a research project, providing flexible pathways for working professionals to deepen their expertise.
The programme will initially offer specialisations in Fire Safety Engineering or Process Safety, supported by a multidisciplinary foundation in risk management and engineering, safety governance, human factors and organisational resilience. It will be Singapore’s first locally offered master’s degree with a specialisation in Fire Safety Engineering designed to equip professionals with relevant knowledge and capabilities in line with industry and regulatory requirements.
“As our built environment becomes increasingly complex and new technologies introduce evolving fire safety risks, there is a growing need to deepen professional capabilities in fire safety engineering. The Master of Science in Safety and Risk, with a specialisation in Fire Safety Engineering, developed in collaboration with SIT, will help equip professionals with the knowledge and expertise to address emerging challenges.
By combining academic rigour with practical industry and regulatory perspectives, the programme will provide working professionals with a structured and flexible pathway to strengthen their expertise and contribute to a safer, more resilient and innovative built environment.”
Senior Assistant Commissioner Ryan Ong, Director, Fire Safety Department, Singapore Civil Defence Force
Singtel Group: AI Readiness and Digital Infrastructure Talent
SIT is partnering with the Singtel Group on two complementary fronts: assessing AI workforce readiness with Singtel and developing specialised talent pathways with Nxera, the data centre business of Singtel’s Digital InfraCo.
Singtel: AI Maturity & Readiness Assessment
SIT is piloting the AI Maturity & Readiness (AIM-R) Assessment to help Singtel better understand workforce preparedness for AI adoption. The assessment, involving about 400 Singtel employees, examines willingness, relevant domain capabilities and adoption behaviours. Findings can support more targeted awareness-building, upskilling and reskilling strategies.
Nxera: Stackable Learning Pathways
SIT and Nxera are designing structured pathways for fresh graduates, mid-career transitioners and working professionals. These include the Catalyst Programme for foundational role-based competencies, reskilling pathways for mid-career professionals, and continuing education modules that can be accumulated towards micro-credentials and higher qualifications. Two Green Data Centre specialist certificates form part of this collaboration:
Specialist Certificate in Electrical Systems and Energy Management
Specialist Certificate in Data Centre Cooling System Design
Both specialist certificates are designed as stackable electives under SIT’s Infrastructure and Systems Engineering Degree via the Competency-based Stackable Micro-credential (CSM) Pathway.
“With AI reshaping industries and economies, developing the right talent will be critical to maintaining technology leadership. Through our work with SIT, Singtel is contributing to a better understanding of AI workforce readiness, while Nxera is building the specialised talent needed for our growing digital infrastructure ecosystem. Closer collaboration between industry and academia will help build the depth and breadth of talent that the AI economy demands. This will ensure that advances in AI and digital infrastructure are matched by the capabilities needed to put them to work at scale.”
Mr Ng Kian Khar, Vice President, People & Culture, Digital InfraCo
Straits Interactive: AI Capability, Governance and Responsible Adoption
SITLEARN and Straits Interactive are collaborating on a three-tier AI Capability Pathway to help enterprises progress from workforce readiness to governed pilot deployment and sustainable, enterprise-wide AI adoption. The collaboration responds to a common challenge: while many organisations are investing in AI tools and experimenting with use cases, these efforts do not automatically translate into measurable or lasting business value.
The pathway goes beyond AI literacy and technical training. It helps organisations develop the people, leadership, governance, processes and implementation capabilities needed to identify valuable use cases, integrate AI into workflows, manage associated risks and sustain AI-enabled operations over time. Organisations can enter the pathway at the stage most relevant to their workforce needs and level of AI maturity.
The three tiers comprise:
Tier 1: Building an AI-ready workforce. Business professionals develop practical skills to use AI responsibly, adapt business AI applications to their work contexts and become internal AI champions.
Tier 2: Preparing leadership and developing solutions for implementation. Senior leaders develop the capabilities to evaluate AI opportunities, risks, organisational readiness and accountability, while selected business use cases can be developed into controlled and governed pilots.
Tier 3: Governing, integrating and scaling AI. Enterprises establish the governance and operating models needed to integrate AI into workflows and sustain performance over time. Leadership development is supported through a Chief AI Officer and Generative AI Leadership series spanning strategy, governance, risk and workforce enablement.
Within the collaboration, SITLEARN serves as the continuing education and enterprise capability-development partner, connecting workforce learning and leadership development with broader organisational transformation. Straits Interactive contributes specialist expertise in AI capability building, AI governance, responsible implementation and enterprise solution development, together with its award-winning CAPABARA capability-as-a-service platform powered by generative AI and its substantial library of applications that enterprises can tap on to quickly start on its Gen AI transformation journey.
“A capability cannot sit with one team or a small group of specialists; it has to be built at every level of the organisation. Through this three-tier pathway, SIT and Straits Interactive are jointly building that capability. At the workforce level, we help develop AI bilingualists and champions who can apply AI to real work. At the leadership level, we equip decision makers to identify value, prioritise opportunities and manage risk. At the enterprise level, we help organisations establish the governance structures and operating capability – including the AI Governance Committee, AI Strategy Office and emerging Chief AI Officer function – needed to integrate and scale AI responsibly. By connecting these levels, we aim to build sustainable AI capability across the organisation and translate it into measurable business transformation.”
Dr Kevin Shepherdson, CEO and Founder of Straits Interactive
