SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) is a statutory board constituted in 2016 that falls under the purview of the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore. SkillsFuture is a national movement to promote lifelong learning among Singaporeans with the aim of creating an advanced economy and inclusive society. The need for a coordinated effort to drive and implement SkillsFuture underlies the formation of SSG.

The nature of this new statutory board is multidisciplinary, and a large amount of resources and focus has been dedicated by the government to ensure its success. We are intrigued by the importance of this national endeavour, and recognise the importance of an effective communications strategy to achieve the objective of widespread adoption by the population.

Additionally, a recent report has confirmed our hypothesis that utilisation of SkillsFuture resources by the 25-29 age group is the lowest among all age groups at 16% (http://www.ssg-wsg.gov.sg/new-and-announcements/08_Jan_2017.html). Given the ubiquity of social media among the same age group, we are presented with the opportunity to devise strategies that leverage the power of social media that can remedy the low take-up rate.

We plan to conduct focus groups, surveys, and in-depth interviews among current and prospective university graduates to get our fingers on the pulse of the characteristics and behaviours of our target audience, particularly in relation to the implementation of SkillsFuture so far. Awareness levels and perceptions will be gauged to determine the type of social media strategies to be adopted.

Subsequently, the feasibility of the media platform on which we deliver the organisation’s message will be decided along three criteria – the nature and length of the content, its suitability in relation to the image alignment of SkillsFuture, and the preferences and behavioural tendencies of our target audience.

The effectiveness of the implementation will ideally be measured by several key performance indicators (KPIs), which will be selected based on the strategies chosen and the objectives targeted. We will be most concerned with the increase in interest levels in the SkillsFuture programmes that result directly from the social media strategies adopted – however, this metric might be hard to measure given the complexity in influence attribution. These objectives will be ascertained at a later date after consultation with an SSG representative.

We hope that through this project we gain a keener understanding of social media strategy implementation in a wide-scale context and a deeper appreciation for the complexities involved in such efforts.