9.3 Summary

you want to call it. We know these are things that become core. I think to do blended or not do blended depending on the depth of your freelance career. … If you are really in-depth entrepreneur, you have your own business and you are marketing yourself aggressively, then certainly, you need to, to have a blended, you know? You need to know what are the software, what are the LMS that is most effective. You, you need to be fully immersed into the developing technologies. [Kumar, 52 years old, freelance, facilitator, learning and performance consultant]

It seems that these adult educators are picking up the new trend in the TAE market. They view techenabled as the way forward and therefore need to have entrepreneurial capabilities to survive and thrive in a competitive labour market.

The focus group discussions also revealed some other issues that frustrated AEs: • Learner profile does not match the course purpose or pre-requisite. E.g., some training providers enrol aunties and uncles to attend modules that are supposedly to be conducted in English only, which they barely understand. • Learners are not ready for tech-enabled learning: e.g., many learners need help to use the ICT tools; more than half of learners do not complete the online learning before classroom session.

• Adult educators normally do not have learners’ information before the classroom session, which is not helpful for them in customising the materials and facilitation to learners’ needs or levels.

• It is almost impossible to fail learners even when they were not ready to complete the training, because most training providers expect 100% pass rate to get the course subsidy. • Pay is delayed or under-cut: a few freelancers complained that the private TPs they worked for are not willing to pay for the e-learning facilitation segment. AEs also perceived TPs pay less than the actual online facilitation requires, for example, TPs pay only one-hour elearning facilitation fee although AEs may need to spend two hours or more to support individual learners online.

We also looked at challenges that TMs, and HRDs faced in working in the TAE sector. Of the 138 surveyed HRDs, 71% (n = 98) reported at least one challenge in their work; and the most cited combination of challenges was lack of work-life balance with difficulty in understanding and/or adapting to government policies/requirements (n = 17), followed by difficulty in responding to the changes in TAE market with lack or work-life balance (n = 16), and difficulty in responding to the changes in TAE market with difficulty in understanding/adapting to government policies/requirements (n = 15). Their top three challenges were lack of work-life balance (42.9%, n = 42), difficulty in responding to the changes in TAE market (41.8%, n = 41) and difficulty in adapting policies (38.8%, n = 38).

Of the 252 surveyed TMs, 82.9% (n = 209) mentioned that they encountered at least one challenge in their work; and the most cited combination of challenges was lack of work-life balance with lack of management support (n = 32), followed by difficulty in responding to the changes in TAE market with difficulty in understanding and/or adapting to policies/requirements (n = 27), and uncertain career trajectories with lack of work-life balance (n=26). The top three challenges were career trajectories are uncertain (35.4%, n = 74), lack of work-life balance (34%, n = 71) and difficulty in responding to the changes in TAE market (31.1%, n = 65).

9.3 Summary

TAE sector in Singapore is heavily shaped by policies. However, about 30% of the TPs and TAE professionals expressed difficulty in understanding and/or adapting to policies/requirements. The TAE market being in constant change also requires the TPs and TAE professionals to not only keep on updating themselves on the changes in the field, but to “read” the sector and grow and develop to stay ahead of the game (see also Karmel, Bound & Rushbrook, 2013). However, the challenges of TAE as a business, and overall job and career issues by TAE professionals could be hampering their goal for growth and participation for continuing professional development. The data on the challenges faced by both TPs and TAE professional would be useful in the overall national discussion on the ways of supporting and developing the Singapore TAE sector.