Tackling the Digital Native Fallacy – is Singapore ready for the future workplace?

Singapore, 20th July ’17 – ICDL Asia, the leading international computer
skills certification across Asia conducted a Digital Native Fallacy “Perception
vs Reality” survey and has found significant information and communication technology
(ICT) skills gaps in the incoming entrants to the Singaporean workforce.

The survey was part of ICDL Digital Literacy Day
2017 (20th of July ’17) held at Singapore Management
University’s Mochtar Riady Auditorium, to create greater awareness and
highlight on the need of adopting relevant digital and ICT skills at the higher
education level to prepare students for the future workforce.

With technology consistently evolving and as
Singapore is on an aggressive momentum towards developing a Smart Nation, many
would then ask – what is the most relevant digital skills needed? To answer
that, ICDL Digital Literacy Day’s Guest-Of-Honor, SPS Low Yen Ling, Senior
Parliment Secretary for Ministry of Trade & Industry and Ministry of
Education, delivered a keynote speech on the Digital Literacy Challenge in
Education.

The Digital Native Fallacy survey was conducted
to measure the actual ICT literacy standards possessed by the tertiary students
(387 students across 8 higher education institutes) in Singapore, versus their
perceived proficiency in ICT skills. The findings were analysed and confirmed
by the Singapore Management University (SMU) – Office of Research & Tech
Transfer.

The survey
arrived at 4 major conclusions:

1.  ICT skills gaps exist in Singapore.

2.  Students with Engineering and IT background scored higher.

3.  Students’ performance are high for ICT concepts
and File and Data Management.

4.  On the contrary, students demonstrated lower performance on Word
Processing and Spreadsheet.

In celebration with ICDL Foundation 20th
Anniversary, ICDL Asia also organised the first ever ICDL Digital Challenge to
search for the top student with the best ICT skills in Asia. This competition
ran across 7 territories including Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines,
Bhutan, India and Singapore. ICDL Asia selected 14 finalists from 3,700
students in more than 100 renowned schools/institutions to compete in
Singapore.

After 3 rounds of competition of sitting through
selected ICDL modules, from Base to Advanced modules, to measure their skills
and competency in computer and ICT, Prince Sumberia of India emerged
victorious. Together with Ang Yee Chin of Singapore (2nd
place) and Tatsapun Ngamsompornpong of Thailand (3rd
place), they will become ambassadors for Digital Literacy – inspiring the
future workforce.

Through the events of ICDL Digital Literacy Day
2017, ICDL Asia uncovered the students’ overall performance to share insights
on the common fallacy of the ‘Digital Native’ in Singapore and Asia. ICDL Asia
also hope to bridge the gap of the digital standards on education level to the
actual skillset that is demanded in the workforce.