The Workforce Development Applied Research Fund (WDARF), a national-level research fund offered by the SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), aims to foster high quality and rigorous applied research in workforce development and lifelong learning to support the SkillsFuture Singapore's key thrusts and national-level policies. It encourages inter-disciplinary research and seeks to strengthen research capabilities, through leveraging both local and international expertise. The WDARF Grant Call is administered by the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) on behalf of the SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG). The grant is awarded through an open, competitive bidding approach, where submitted proposals go through a technical expert review and evaluation, before they are presented to a Research Committee for approval.
Workforce Development Applied Research Fund (WDARF) 2025 Grant Call
The WDARF 2025 Grant Call is now open. We are now accepting submission for Expression of Interest (EOI) from now till 18 July.
Previous Result
Grant Call 2018
Socio-Materials that Matter for Traversing the Boundaries of School and Work
Dr Chue Shien, Nanyang Technological University
• Delineate the social and material affordances that matter for effective internship learning • Explore changing identities of undergraduate students as they cross between boundaries of institutions and the workplace • Design a tool-kit for preparing young adults for learning at the workplace • Provide recommendations on strengthening existing support for continuous learning
Grant Call 2017
Course Suggestion for Career Planning: Evaluating Strategies to Support Lifelong Learning. A Pilot on Using Analytics to Recommend SkillsFuture Credit Courses
Professor Robert Kamei, National University of Singapore
The aim of this study is to create a recommender system that can help Singaporeans find, select and complete CET programmes that are suited to both their personal strengths and the needs of the broader Singapore economy. It uses both recent artifical intelligence and data mining techniques as well as behavourial science to better understand how and why people pursue opportunities for lifelong learning. The pilot will test and evaluate the quality of its recommendations.
Grant Call 2020
Socio-cultural factors shaping Singaporean Malay-Muslim workers’ decisions regarding employment and training
Dr Mohamad Shamsuri Juhari, National University of Singapore
The project will focus on the socio-cultural dynamics which serve to motivate or inhibit Singaporean Malay/Muslim Community (MMC) workers from actively seeking pathways to enhance their career and work life. It aims to identify and examine specific socio-cultural factors that serve to frame the decision-making processes of working-age adults from the MM community with regards to enhancing their individual career and work life. The project also seeks to recommend solutions to address the challenges posed by these factors.
Grant Call 2022
The Effectiveness of Coaching to Support ICT Workplace Learners’ Transition between Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and Workplace
Associate Professor Lim Sok Mui May, Singapore Institute of Technology
This project focuses on understanding the effects of coaching in helping ICT workplace learners achieve deep-level changes and transformed learning, for a more positive experience transitioning between their student-employee roles. Through this research, we would better understand the academic trajectory (e.g., whether coaching had a long-term impact on how well students maintain their grades) of workplace learners who received coaching, and motivational trajectory over their course of study (e.g., assessed/indexed by a myriad of measures such as dropout rates, resilience, confidence, and stress levels).
Grant Call 2019
Understanding and Promoting Networked Learning in the Workplace: A Learning Analytics Approach
Dr Khor Ean Teng, Nanyang Technological University
The research project aims to understand networked learning and gain insights into how individuals learn through networks by investigating different components of the learning process using a learning analytics approach. The findings from the project will provide an understanding of the learning process in the case of networked learning for individuals.
