In 1997, Mr Lawrence Wong stepped into the working world, fresh out of college as an economics graduate.
"As most fresh graduates are, I was brimming with confidence. I thought I knew everything there was to know about economics," said Mr Wong, who began his career as a civil servant at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Then the Asian financial crisis struck.
Said Mr Wong: "One of my first assignments was to put up a paper to my bosses to assess the impact on the regional economies and the implications for Singapore. Nothing that I learnt in school prepared me for such an assignment."
Mr Wong talked about having to "scramble" and plug knowledge gaps yesterday at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where he launched SkillsFuture@NTU, a series of virtual workshops to help Singaporeans keep up with new work demands.
It was Mr Wong's second day in his new role as Education Minister, and his first official event in his new appointment.
He said: "I realised how big a gap there was from my textbook understanding of economics and the way things work in the real world.
"Since that experience, it has been a journey of continuous learning because there are many, many gaps in my knowledge that I still continue to plug to this very day."
These include keeping up to date on developments, and picking up soft skills like writing policy papers and presenting technical information to a non-technical audience.
"As a young economist, I learnt very quickly that how you present data and charts is quite important. And I took a lot of time and effort to improve my skills in doing these things; it's not just about using Excel and PowerPoint," said Mr Wong.
With the Covid-19 outbreak, the pace of change has accelerated, and so has the impetus for continuous learning, he added.
Learning does not stop at graduation, he said. "I know this is a tough period for job seekers, especially for our fresh graduates who are now looking to enter the workforce."
The institutes of higher learning (IHLs) have stepped up efforts for fresh graduates this year, he said. The support includes sourcing job openings and holding career fairs.
IHLs have a heavy responsibility in continuing education and training, said Mr Wong, who served at the Ministry of Education (MOE) from May 2011 to November 2012, where he was Minister of State, and then Senior Minister of State.
"For a long time, we have been trying to bring IHLs and industry closer together," said Mr Wong.
"In the past, certainly in my first stint at MOE, when I asked IHLs, do you have any industry links, all of them would say 'yes' immediately, we do. Then you ask industry, do you think of your links with the IHLs, and they will tell you that the IHLs tend to be a bit too academic and too far removed from real-world practicalities."
But the situation has changed over the years, he said.
"We see the importance of SkillsFuture, even in our fight against Covid-19," said Mr Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
He said doctors at community care facilities were concerned about the possible spread of communicable diseases, given that so many people are housed together.
So, to pick up early signs of such outbreaks, a group of young doctors developed their own mobile application to monitor patients' conditions and symptoms, said Mr Wong.
The typical way would be to outsource the work to an IT company, he said, but these doctors also knew how to code, and could develop an app and roll it out within a few days.
About 8,750 participants, including fresh graduates and mid-career job seekers, took part in yesterday's event, which was organised with SkillsFuture Singapore and supported by all local universities, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education.
