What Can Singapore Do to Improve the Financial Literacy of Its People?

Just thought of sharing with you that my ideas on a subject I am passionate about have been published in the Straits Times on May 7, 2015 on page 29. Here’s a copy of my write-up as it appeared in the newspaper.

I received positive responses from many clients and they wish that more concrete and perhaps even measurable initiatives can be put in place to raise the level of financial literacy in Singapore.

“Dear Karen,

Your article is particularly timely as I was a facilitator at a weeklong module on the use of IT and social media in e-learning for healthcare professionals that ended today. The problem we are facing is how to make medical, nursing and allied health education relevant to a new generation of learners and also how best to leverage technology for education in general.

Your comments and suggestions in your article seem very practical and well considered.

Some of the barriers from a healthcare viewpoint that we have discussed over the week with faculty from Harvard University that were here include getting learners to view social media as an educational tool rather than a leisure activity, creating a sense of urgency and a desire to learn in the target audience, and getting the learners to use tools (such as Twitter, Google+, etc) that they may not normally use.

I guess the most important aspect is to convince the public that financial literacy matters. Then fill the demand for information with easily manageable chunks of independent information through social media platforms.”