Increasing Pathways for Students To Join Salesforce in Singapore

The last few years have rapidly accelerated the shift to digital-first experiences and the adoption of new technologies. According to SkillsFuture Singapore, the demand for digital skills, such as software testing and experience design, has doubled over the past 4 years. 

Worryingly, this is creating a growing digital skills gap. According to Salesforce’s Global Digital Skills Index, more than three quarters (76%) of global workers say they don’t have the skills they need for the future of work. To close this gap will require vast amounts of reskilling and career shifting on the part of companies, educational institutes, and policymakers. 

Salesforce has always been committed to workforce development programmes focused on training, reskilling, and helping people get hired for the jobs of the future. For example, our free online learning platform, Trailhead, allows people to skill up for jobs within the Salesforce ecosystem. To date, more than 3.9M learners have skilled up on Trailhead and 1 in 3 say they found a new job with the skills they learned. 

Doubling down on our efforts to close the digital skills gap in Singapore, Salesforce will be collaborating with The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to train 7,500 ITE students on digital customer relationship management (CRM) skills over the next 5 years. Salesforce’s Trailhead Academy will work with ITE to provide an enhanced curriculum and a new mentorship programme, equating to approximately S$8.7 million in value.

  (L-R) Mr Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce ASEAN, Ms Cecily Ng, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce Singapore and Taiwan, Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information, Ms Alice Seow, Principal, ITE College West, Mr Alvin Goh, Director, School of Business & Services, ITE College West at the MOU Exchange Ceremony for Salesforce and ITE

Building a strong foundation for a career in tech

As part of this new collaboration, Salesforce will customise and embed guided learning paths from Trailhead into the ITE curriculum across all three colleges in Singapore. The courses provided will focus on Salesforce administrator and developer roles. They are projected to provide at least 7,500 ITE students with the skills and credentials required to kick-start their career in the technology industry or generate pathways to further tertiary education. 

A dedicated mentorship programme will also be introduced for the first time. For each cohort, 60 ITE students will be mentored by Salesforce employees and supported by trained ITE lecturers, and will undergo exams to obtain resume-worthy certifications such as Salesforce administrator or developer. The students will be given case studies to apply their skillsets and hands-on case competitions simulating real-world environments to gain practical skills. Under the MOU, Trailhead Academy will also partner with youth development organisation, Halogen Foundation Singapore to provide these students with soft skills training.

The mentorship programme seeks to empower ITE students to connect to opportunities and eventually land a role in the Salesforce ecosystem, which is projected to create 18,600 jobs in Singapore by 2026. This includes roles such as Salesforce administrators and developers within companies that use Salesforce, or as independent consultants to companies that are looking to implement Salesforce solutions or seeking digital transformation strategies for their organisations. The program is slated to start in October 2023 alongside ITE’s official curriculum.

Enhancing student training to provide holistic education experiences

Beyond contributing to ITE’s curriculum, Salesforce will conduct Train-The-Trainer sessions with ITE staff to equip them with the expertise in emerging CRM trends and new Salesforce technologies.

By providing more opportunities for holistic educational experiences and training for the younger generation, we hope to be able to propel Singapore’s digital talent pool and democratise the access to education.

Did you know that you don’t have to be a student to join the Salesforce ecosystem? Anyone can create a Trailblazer account via Trailhead. Click here to find out more!