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Connor Mycroft

Hong Kong’s labour secretary has called for greater cross-sector efforts to help young people gain job experience amid disruption caused by artificial intelligence (AI), while Singapore’s trade minister has urged embracing a “continuous learning” mindset.
Speaking at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s PBC (Philanthropy for Better Cities) Forum 2026 on Monday, the city’s Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said that higher education alone was no longer enough to ensure career success in the age of AI.
“If you look at what’s going to make a success in a career, the task usually is that you invest in higher education,” Sun said. “It’s almost a guarantee as a passport to a good career.
“Right now, this is not a recipe for success any more.”
Sun added that success today required AI fluency, trade-specific professional skills, and soft skills such as communication and the ability to “win people over”.
While young people typically exhibited the highest AI fluency, they faced difficulty getting opportunities to be tested in real-world work environments, he said.
“So for me, this is like a paradox of AI fluency without a platform,” he said.
“I think here we need a concerted effort between the government, employers and also philanthropy, to help provide a better transition for young people to be really tested in the workplace as soon as possible.”
People working in clerical jobs were also at a high risk of losing their jobs, Sun said.
During the panel discussion, Sun outlined measures the government was implementing to help residents with social mobility and retraining.
He highlighted plans to upgrade the Employees Retraining Board under the rebranded moniker Upskill Hong Kong, and proposals to launch a social welfare project-matching platform later in the year.
Sun said the government’s coming manpower forecast would also outline which jobs were more likely to be lost to AI.
“We need to tell people which jobs are more AI-proof [and] which jobs are more prone to AI destruction,” he said.

The Jockey Club’s two-day forum brought together about 2,000 delegates from philanthropy, sports, government, business and academia to the city’s West Kowloon Cultural District.
Held under the theme “Leaping for Impact”, it marked the fifth edition of the forum, which was first held in 2016.
Speaking on the same panel, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng said his country’s approach to AI was like taking “a bull by the horns”.
“We are pushing AI fluency and literacy to as broad a base of our population as possible,” said Tan, who formerly served as the country’s minister of manpower.
“We nudge all of our Singapore workers to go on to these AI courses, which are heavily subsidised ... We hope to make [AI fluency] as widespread, as pervasive as possible.”
He also highlighted Singapore’s upskilling programmes such as SkillsFuture Credit, which provided citizens with subsidies for approved training courses. First introduced in 2015, the programme was recently updated to include a mid-career “top-up” for those aged 40 and over.
He added that the country’s Skills and Workforce Development Agency had worked with universities and other higher education institutes to connect undergraduate students with internships and traineeships.
In the current economic climate, attaining a skills-based training certificate or degree was just the beginning of the learning process, Tan said.
“With the way the technology is moving, the job cycles are becoming shorter and shorter and shorter. So we need to embrace this mindset of continuous learning,” he said.


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Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng has called for embracing continuous learning. Photo: Edmond So

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Labour chief Chris Sun says higher education alone no guarantee of job success, while Singapore’s trade minister calls for ‘continuous learning’ mindset


Labour chief Chris Sun says higher education alone no guarantee of job success, while Singapore’s trade minister calls for ‘continuous learning’ mindset.


Hong Kong Jockey Club

Singapore

Chris Sun Yuk-han

Cross-sector push needed for youth facing ‘paradox of AI fluency’: minister

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Labour chief Chris Sun says higher education alone no guarantee of job success, while Singapore’s trade minister calls for ‘continuous learning’ mindset

Labour chief Chris Sun says higher education alone no guarantee of job success, while Singapore’s trade minister calls for ‘continuous learning’ mindset