CASAS – Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems — Helps Meet Changing Needs of Singapore Economy

San Diego — February 1, 2011 — Assessment experts from the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) met recently with their counterparts at the CASAS San Diego office to further the success of their six-year partnership. Already, the two organizations have developed the Employability Skills System (introduced in 2005) and the Services Literacy Test (introduced in 2010). Both are part of the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications framework, a robust and integrated continuing education and training system designed to build industry competencies.

The association between CASAS — a provider of skills assessments, research services, and professional development — and the WDA goes back to 2004 when CASAS won a Singapore Ministry of Manpower contract in an international competitive bid process. Since then, CASAS and WDA have partnered to create effective curriculum, training, and assessment systems that enhance the employability and competitiveness of the Singapore workforce (which is more than forty percent foreign born). Noting that Singapore is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, CASAS President Patricia Rickard remarked, “In Singapore, access to jobs is very fluid because training programs are modular, flexible, not necessarily classroom-based, and recognize past skills and experience workers have already acquired.”

Since 1980, CASAS has worked with programs that serve adults and youth (educational, vocational, and private industry) to improve participants’ basic skills and provide a path to family, community, and workplace success. Each year CASAS brings together youth and adult education and employment training program administrators and instructors to share knowledge and skills in accountability, assessment, and evaluation of vocational and adult education programs at its annual National Summer Institute. This event covers current practices and perspectives regarding workforce development, transitioning adults to postsecondary education, teaching English as a Second Language, and use of technology in assessment, instruction, and in accountability reporting.