Industry 4.0 is no more a concept of the distant future. Governments, companies and educators must come together to create quality jobs, according to Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister.

In the constantly evolving industrial landscape, both employers and educators have to work in tandem to create high-quality jobs and supply highly skilled labour as well, Shanmugaratnam said.

“We know that Industry 4.0 is here. It is not just a forecast, it is already transforming manufacturing and logistics,” Shanmugaratnam said adding that AI, smart technologies should also penetrate into the SMEs in the region.

Establishing relevant networks and partnerships is a major step towards gearing up for the changes coming up in talent management, upskilling initiatives and ensuring that high-quality jobs are generated in the market.

Setting smart industry standards

Smart Industry Readiness Index is a tool to measure whether existing businesses are ready to adopt and work with new tech was launched by the Index Partners Networks. The index is a way to have a standardized system of measuring the company’s performance against a national index.

The Singapore Standards Council, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Enterprise Singapore have developed this index so that businesses can evaluate their own operations, personnel performance and inclination to adapt to new tech.

Upskilling the pharma sector

Contributing to about 3 percent of the Singaporean economy, the pharmaceutical industry is a growing sector with eight of the global top ten pharma companies conducting their operations based out of this country.

In order to propel the growing pharma sector, an R&D organization that is the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*Star),  big pharma names such as GlaxoSmithKline, MSD International and Pfizer along with local educational institutes have signed a $34 million agreement called the Pharma Innovation Programme Singapore.

International agreements to encourage startups

More than 40 Singapore-based startups wanting to expand into Germany and Europe will now garner international support thanks to an agreement between the Singapore Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore and German Accelerator Southeast Asia (GASEA), recently signed at the Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific 2018 trade fair at the Singapore Expo.

The program will begin in early 2019 and those startups in IoT, 3D printing, digital health, deep tech can apply.

Moreover, in an effort to create relevant jobs for the students graduating from local universities, there’s a Poly-goes-UAS initiative to give 10 students scholarship to gain hands-on experience at German Mittelstand (SMEs) in the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

Photography source: Monetary Authority of Singapore