When Sim Benson started working after finishing university, he was blessed to have a mentor who gave him good advice. “When I started my career at M1, my training manager felt strongly that as trainers, we should also have relevant academic credentials even though most of us already have a first degree,” said Benson, who graduated with a Diploma in Human Resource Development with PSB Academy (then known as PSB-IPT) in 2000.
At that time, he already had a degree in English Language and Philosophy from the National University of Singapore. However, his diploma reinforced his knowledge and skills and enabled him to pursue a career in human resources (HR), across various segments of the industry, such as Learning & Development (L&D), talent management, and employee engagement. By the time he reached a relatively tender age of 35, he became a regional L&D director at an international company. Currently, as a Lead Industrial Training Officer at the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC)’s Training and Transformation division, Benson works with unions and the labour movement family to assist companies with their strategic road-mapping, helping them to develop actionable outcomes in the areas of technology, operations, human resources, sustainability, and so on.
In view of his career success, Benson is glad that he has continued his learning journey and attributed a significant part of his current achievement to PSB-IPT. “It was my first formal education (after entering the working world), and it came in very timely as the training function was gradually shifting to what it is more commonly known today – the L&D function,” he said. In response to the stigma that private education institutions do not offer quality curriculum due to its ‘shortened’ duration, he said, “Do not confuse education with capability. You can have a degree and still be incompetent! You got to put in that 100 hours to get some capability, 1,000 hours to be good, and 10,000 hours to achieve mastery of a specific skill. There are so many skillsets that most of us will not be able to acquire all of them in a lifetime!”
Regarding PSB-IPT’s curriculum, Benson revealed, ”It was systematic, and it certainly helped me professionally. For example, the modules in training needs analysis, evaluation, and especially in managing training functions and organisational development were the basis of most of the work I do in the areas of L&D.”
The diploma course has also equipped Benson with good technical skills and knowledge. He elaborated, “For example, we used to adopt Nadler’s Training Needs Analysis (TNA) model when doing TNA for companies. Later in the 2000s, as we had more multinational corporations (MNCs) in the local scene, we moved more to an Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) model for convenience.” The latter is a framework for designing and developing educational and training programmes.
With some nostalgia, he continued, ”I remember going through some of my notes when I finally had the opportunity to manage the training function. Likewise, I went back to my textbooks on ‘Organisation Development’ (OD) (Harvey Brown, if anyone remembers) when I started to do the organisation development type of work.”
As Benson reminisced about the time he spent at the school’s Bukit Merah campus, he could still recall some of the lecturers’ names and anecdotes fondly. “I remember a certain Mr Jason as he was teaching us OD. He started teaching our module by telling us that most of us would not be working here in the next 5 or 10 years. This made us wonder why we were studying that module. But he was so right! It did take around that time until I had the opportunity to be involved in OD work and one of my favourite areas in L&D, which is planning, and then saw how organisations evolve!”
A lifelong learner himself, Benson supports the concept of continuously pursuing knowledge, expanding skillsets, and learning and evolving constantly, which is critical during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. He has this advice for future students: “What we used to know or take for granted may change abruptly. We can choose to lament on the situation ala ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’, or we can evolve by learning and developing new skills.” In fact, ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ is a bestselling book by Spencer Johnson on how to deal with changes, and its core message is: “Things constantly change, so we must adapt, and the faster we adapt, the better it will be.”
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