Singapore should invest more in nurturing talent: ESC

Fantagf SG

Posted: 04 February 2010 0751 hrs - Channelnewsasia

SINGAPORE: Though she came from a science background and had majored in physics, Ms Grace Goh, who also did Japanese Literature, was not keen on going into the research field - one of the typical options, along with teaching, for science graduates.

But a traineeship in Technology Transfer Management, starting last year, showed the 26-year-old some potential paths by bridging both science and business.

From entrepreneur to patent agent, industry analyst to consultant, Ms Goh discovered a range of possible careers if she could turn innovations into viable businesses.

And investing in nurturing talent - as in Ms Goh's case - is what Singapore needs to do better, according to the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) subcommitee looking at growing knowledge capital.

Singapore has about 1.5 doctorate holders (PhDs) per 1,000 in the labour force, compared to three or more in other research and development-intensive economies such as Finland and Sweden

More importantly, just 35 per cent of the PhDs in Singapore's universities are citizens or permanent residents (PRs), noted the subcommittee.

Its report on Wednesday stated there was a need to attract and train a broad spectrum of talent in the innovation and enterprise value chain, "especially those with knowledge and expertise relevant to the Asian markets", so that innovations translate into "economic impact".

The subcommittee, chaired by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) chairman Lim Chuan Poh and drug discovery company S*BIO chief executive officer Jan-Anders Karlsson, also called for the Government to enable professionals with different expertise to work together to "speed up the translation from knowledge creation through innovation to the market".

For instance, Singapore can learn from the systematic approach that California-based Stanford Biodesign has taken to train professionals to more effectively commercialise their biomedical innovations.

Ms Goh's two-year programme, which is subsidised by the Workforce Development Agency and participating companies, was a positive example highlighted by the subcommittee. She said that the technology transfer programme gave her an idea of what goes into technology transfer and "what a difficult process that is".

"Most people who come from a science background won't know much about business and what's happening out there," she said.

But to develop a niche, there needs to be more training courses to provide more in-depth skills and expertise, she suggested.

"It is a very broad field with a lot of niche areas, so there could be more programmes to allow people to develop expertise in each area."

Meanwhile, Singapore universities need to work toward producing more "industry-relevant" PhDs and also encourage greater participation of Singaporeans and PRs in such programmes, given that the demand for PhDs is strong, said the subcommittee.

The universities should also work with the private sector on "mutually interesting and relevant" PhD research topics, so that there are better employment opportunities in the private sector for PhD graduates.

- TODAY/sc

Chew Bakar SG

Still too much red tapes in the system for nuturing talents. Many may have talents but they are not enterpreneurs. Vice versa. Both are of different breds.