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Examines the impact of public policies on the entry of women into the workforce in Singapore, using force‐field analysis to study the counteracting forces created by the mixed policies which can either drive or restrain women from entering the job market. Suggests that although there has been an increase in Singapore’s female workforce participation rate in the last few decades, more measures could be devised to encourage more women to participate in the workforce.

The paper aims to explore the possibility of advancing a Singaporean way of learning within the continuing education and training landscape in Singapore.

Using the vehicle of a narrative interview and extending the boundaries of autoethnography, the paper uses personal reflection and interpretation to explore the issues of Singaporean identity amidst the diversity in the globalised Singapore of today.

The paper uncovers the growing latent discomfort of Singaporeans as they navigate historical legacies of Colonialism and question what it means to be schooled in Western systems whilst being Asian. With the supplanting of Asian languages and the seeming superiority and dominance of Western talent, systems and knowledge, Singaporeans are looking to express a greater sense of what being Singaporean could mean.

Upon manoeuvring and exposing the invisible, the paper concludes that there is an impetus to forge a “Singaporean way”, although how this would manifest itself is, as yet, unknown.

Although Singapore has a very visible presence globally for its economic achievements, the paper allows for an often under-represented voice of a native Singaporean to be heard. The liberties taken here with the narrative inquiry mode also allow space for a deeper exploration of identity, pride and conflict in a Singaporean today.

Employers often claim that the lack of employee competence is a limitation in their enterprises’ success and viability. Consequently, employers are important stakeholders in considerations for workforce continuing education and training (CET) policies and practices. Hence, the authors undertook an exploratory investigation to understand how employers perceive provisions of CET offered through tertiary education institutions and how they might be improved.

Overall, 40 employers from a range of industry sectors in Singapore were surveyed and interviewed about effective CET for their employees.

These employers reported preferring one-on-one training in the workplace and being willing to invest in their employees’ training so long employees remained committed to their companies. They value online education, but prefer that it is combined with workplace or face-to-face learning experiences. They proposed effective CET trainers as those with relevant industry knowledge and teaching skills and effective CET learners as those who were self-motivated, goal oriented and open-minded.

A study of such nature that focusses on the perspectives of employers, as opposed to employees and educators, has not been undertaken before in Singapore. Given Singapore’s increasing emphasis on lifelong learning and the workplace as a vital site for that learning, the lessons learnt here transcend national boundaries and may serve as a useful reference for other countries that seek to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficacy of the policy measures to encourage young Singaporeans to pursue employment in the manufacturing sector while at the same time discouraging the sector’s traditional dependence on low-cost foreign labour. In doing so, the paper sheds light on the challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SME) as well as the less than optimum impact the policy rhetoric has had on redirecting the aspirations of young people away from tertiary qualifications attainment and towards vocational skills development.

The paper draws on primary survey data of 222 manufacturing firms and in-depth interviews with 20 SME leaders in Singapore.

The paper argues that despite the government’s policy efforts to encourage the employment of young Singaporeans in the manufacturing sector, the impact has been negligible. Even with moves to increase the transaction costs of employing foreign workers, the findings indicate that SMEs have not changed their staffing policies. Indeed, the results lay bare the low cost-low skill/low productivity trap that most SMEs now find themselves in. The government’s efforts to discourage the pursuit of tertiary qualifications in favour of vocational qualifications are unlikely to succeed.

The value of this research is fourfold. First, it exposes the difficulty of policy overcoming path dependency. Second, it sheds light on the need for government to rethink its policy approach in how best to re-tool human capital for traditional industry sectors like manufacturing. Third, the results show that there is limited efficacy in simply increasing transaction costs and altering rhetoric to discourage attainment of tertiary qualifications unless vocational employment is adequately remunerated. And finally, the results indicate that firms in the manufacturing sector need to embrace new business models, practices and technologies that are reflective of the digital era to be able to attract youth.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key characteristics and propose a working definition of a smart nation.

A case study of Singapore through an analysis of the key speeches made by senior Singapore leaders, publicly available government documents and news reports since the launch of the smart nation initiative in December 2014 was carried out.

Just like smart cities, the idea of a smart nation is an evolving concept. However, there are some emerging characteristics that define a smart nation.

The paper provides an initial understanding of the key characteristics and definition of a smart nation at the nascent stage and a foundation for further research on the topic.

This paper contributes to the existing smart cities and smart nation literature by providing insights to the key characteristics of smart nation and proposing a working definition of the term.

This paper aims to identify a possible solution as to how meaningful work could be considered as a lever in attracting and retaining Generation Y (Gen-Y) employees to work in the Singapore hotel industry.

This paper draws on the perspectives of earlier conceptual papers by Chacko et al. (2012) and Solnet and Hood (2008) in an effort to identify root causes and a possible solution. The context of Singapore and the international literature are also reviewed to establish theoretical and practical gaps that need to be filled.

The results from this study can be used as a guide to enable hotels to improve the attraction, retention and management of Gen-Y employees. This is crucial in hotels where many properties are facing challenges in attracting and retaining hotel employee talent.

The paper provides a fresh examination of the characteristics and behaviours of Gen-Y employees, as well as suggests an improved organizational approach to attraction and retention. This methodology includes an element of positive psychology, in the form and experience of meaningful work.

This paper explores the vocational training of construction workers in Guangdong Province of China and identifies its position in the global political-economic spectrum of skill formation.

The paper reviews construction vocational education and training (VET) of major political economies to develop a theoretical framework that guides an in-depth case study of Guangdong. Document analysis, field trip observations, meetings and semi-structured interviews were combined to explore the political-economic environment, political stakeholders and quality assurance mechanisms of industrial training in Guangdong's construction sector. The findings were compared with construction VET of other economies reported in the literature.

Construction training in Guangdong is deeply rooted in the local history and culture, under strong dominance of the state, while continually evolves to respond to the fluid market and therefore can be conceptualised as “market-in-state”. The political stakeholders are embedded within the state to ensure that skills policies are implemented in-line with industry policies. The differences between the training of Guangdong and its foreign counterparts are attributed to their divergent political-economic models.

As the case study was undertaken only with Guangdong, the generalisability of its findings can be improved through future research within a broader context of multiple provinces of China through both qualitative and quantitative research approaches.

Plausible foreign VET approaches are likely adaptable to the Chinese context only when conducive political-economic environment could be enabled. The findings are useful for developing countries to learn from the VET experience of industrialised economies. Construction workers' training in Guangdong can be improved by strengthening labour regulation at lower subcontracting levels and ensuring the presence of industrial associations and unions for collective training supervision.

The paper contributes to the field of construction engineering and management with a theoretical framework that guides empirical studies on the influence of the political-economic environment upon the ways political stakeholders develop and participate in construction VET. The exploration based on this framework revealed the position of the vocational training of construction workers in Guangdong in the global political-economic spectrum of skill formation.