Dear Students,

Welcome to Lithan Academy!

In today's rapidly changing economy, knowledge and skills can quickly become outdated. Ongoing professional development and continuous learning are keys to not only surviving, but also to thrive in the global marketplace.

It is against this backdrop that our Prime Minister announced the Continuing Education and Training (CET) Masterplan in February, 2008; The plan leading to programmes that form a lifelong learning system, which enables talents to stay relevant, find their niche, and seize opportunities in new growth sectors.

Today, we as a CET provider, and you, as an adult learner, are beneficiaries of this masterplan.

Being part of the working committee appointed by Singapore Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and Workforce Development Agency (WDA) in 2005 to formulate manpower strategies for the ICT sector, I gained valuable insights on the challenges we are facing in Singapore. With the availability of a large pool of IT resources at lower costs from neighboring countries, it is clear that we will not be able to compete unless we differentiate ourselves by focusing on the development of IT professionals for high-value job roles.

Fortunately, Singapore as a business hub, has a ready pool of experienced domain professionals familiar with international best practices across diverse industries. We can upgrade their skills to develop a pool of high-value multidisciplinary ICT professionals that could not be replicated easily elsewhere.

The next question was whether we have an education model that would enable us to produce these "T"-shaped professionals in a fast and efficient manner. Unfortunately, neither the academic institu tions, which impart generic knowledge within a chosen discipline, nor the industry training providers, which focus narrowly on specific technologies, could deliver the multidisciplinary skills required.

In 2008, partly encouraged by the CET masterplan, I founded Lithan Academy. The mission was to deliver a "Cooperative Learning Model" that enables working professionals to "future-proof" their careers through the acquisition of multidisciplinary skills that are practical and relevant. Our model essentially comprised of three core elements: competency-based education, experiential learning and career transition support.

Our training focused on delivering multidisciplinary competencies needed for specific job roles so that our students can become productive quickly on the job. To support this need, our education content has been developed and certified under the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF), which is administered by the WDA and IDA.

Beyond classroom training, we deliver Experiential Learning that includes project work or work integrated learning to ease our students' transition into their target job roles. Also, beyond our role as an education provider, we closely engaged employers to take on the role of a career services provider as well. We assisted our students' career transition by providing internships and job placements through our employer network. By seeing things through the eyes of employers, we became our students' strategic partner for lifelong career growth.

Over the last 2 years, Lithan Academy, in collaboration with WDA, has rolled out 8 NICF Diplomas and 20 modular qualifica tions to train more than 1,500 high-value ICT job roles including ERP consultants, Business Intelligence specialists, Systems Administrators, Technopreneurs and Technology sales and marketing professionals. With that, Lithan Academy was awarded Continuing Education & Training (CET) Centre status by WDA.

Recently, there has been an emerging trend towards the adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Just in Time (JIT) learning methodologies to cater to the changing needs of adult learners. We have therefore embarked on another transformation to innovate in the way education programmes are designed and delivered.

We call our new education model "Just In Time Skills Mastery For Tech Talents". Through our "Just In Time Skills Mastery For Tech Talents" model, we deliver competency-based curricula, work-integrated experiential learning, and blended, just in time learning.

Just In Time Skills Mastery For Tech Talent delivery will allow our students to experience learning in a flipped classroom environment, study anytime anywhere using any smart device, and access "bite-sized" Just in Time Content for personalized, targeted learning.

Sincerely,

Leslie Loh
Chairman