That is Singapore’s labor movement will forge Worker 4.0 in the post-COVID era of high retrenchment and job disruption.

Now that the world has been made painfully aware of the importance of digitalization, governments are taking steps to ramp up technology education and training in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Singapore, free courses in AI, cloud and data technologies will be made available by the nation’s continuing education and training provide NTUC Learning Hub in collaboration with IBM.

The tie-up came as a result of ongoing discussions about the shared goals of both companies to help workers stay competitive as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies.

A suite of curated free IBM courses will be made available through NTUC LHUB for learners to develop skills in key technologies such as Cybersecurity, AI, Cloud and Quantum Computing. The courses have been developed in-house by IBM, leveraging their expertise in each field.

Said NTUC LHUB CEO Kwek Kok Kwong: “Our dream is to team up with great content providers and we will curate and democratize knowledge to our workers in Singapore. In April, we teamed up with GO1 to provide online courses in Adaptive and Technology skills, and more content providers are now working with us to provide steep vertical knowledge, for example Dupont Sustainable Solutions with online courses in Safety, Maintenance and Reliability. IBM’s cutting-edge courses will be invaluable in providing future-ready skills to pivot our workforce into Worker 4.0 as Singapore embarks on our Industry 4.0 transformation. We welcome more like-minded organizations to join us in this journey, so that we can emerge stronger together.”

“We are excited to partner NTUC LHUB in the nation’s skills-building efforts to drive the country’s journey towards innovation. Acquiring and developing these skills will be critical for businesses to change and adapt quickly in a post-Covid era and the timing of this collaboration is perfect,” said Martin Chee, Managing Director, IBM Singapore.