Now CNA 938 rewind.
If you could learn any skill, Haiyan, what would it be and why? I know you've done your skills future bit already, uh, good citizen there. What have you, what would you want to do next? I want to learn how to cook. I mean, but you hate cleaning up. Let it be known on national radio that this guy wants to learn how to cook but doesn't want to clean up. Exactly right. So which is why I want to learn to cook meals, you still have to clean up. OK, so, so something like a one pot menu of sorts,
one pot recipe. So that means I just have to clean one pot. Yes, actually that's a very good strategy. Uh, that one pot could also be a one pan. It could also be a one rice cooker, rice cooker. So that is what I, yeah. What about you? Uh, I have said this before. I still haven't registered for it. I'm going to go learn Mandarin. Um, yeah, that's basically it. I want to also go and learn how to do stand up paddling, but I don't need
SkillsFuture for that. I do need SkillsFuture for, uh, Mandarin lessons, but yeah, um, check in again in May when I'm a bit more free uh to to take that out. Well we're we're talking about this because we found out that there was someone. Uh, who has used his skills future credit to do something that has absolutely nothing with his job. Basically, he, our next guest, he kind of learned how to DJ using his credits. So not, not DJ in a sense like like us, right? Radio.
Presenters, radio DJs. This is really the turntable scratching and producing that is a tough skill. Exactly. So he is Imran Jory, marketing director at Big Thunder, and he joins us now. Hey, Imran, a very good morning. Thank you for joining us right here on the Morning Report on CNA 938. So there's a notion that SkillsFuture credits can only be used for work-related courses. You said you were one of those who took a while to finally sign up for
a course. Talk us through what the deciding factor was for you. Good morning guys. Thanks for having me on the show. Um, so essentially I'm one of those Singaporeans who for the longest time logged on to my SkillsFuture credit screen or dashboard. And just goes wow, so much and did absolutely nothing and just let it accumulate because um I was of the impression of mindset that if I was OK at work doing what I did to do, all the skills
I needed, I would just learn on the job. So the SkillsFuture credits didn't really sort of was um an applicable avenue for me for as long as I can remember and then So among other things, I have a lot of ridiculous hobbies. I indulge myself in a lot of frivolous things and um I'm I'm also a very keen constant learner on skill sets that are not necessarily practical. OK. So here's the thing, so you said that you felt.
Like the skills you needed for your work or to be better at your work, you'll learn on the job. But given how there's this narrative about how to futureproof your career, you think that you don't, you won't need sort of a professional upgrade in that sense, which is what uh some of us received that $4000 extra for. OK, what I just said just now does sound a bit of a I mean I don't mean to call you out.
I mean I'm I'm in the same position too. I mean, I know that the skills that I need for my current job, I can just learn on the go, but you know, there's always that what if nagging at the back of my head, right? There's AI, there's data, there's stuff like that, right? I mean, should we think about, didn't you think about futureproofing your career? We still have 2030 years to go. I'm being generous there.
Well, you're right, you're absolutely right. Here's the thing, right, just as a caveat, I've had 150 jobs across 4 industries, and I really have kind of restarted my career a few times over. I've been in production, I've been in publishing, I've been in recruitment, I've been in a VC, I've been in a FinTech. I'm right now working with an investment platform. I'm selling a finance bro my 50s. So it's always so you have pivoted many times. I have so many times, right?
And and to be fair, a lot of the earlier career choices I made were purely again out of frivolity and fun because I just wanted to do stuff that I enjoyed. It's only later on mid-career day like, OK, I got to make some cash. I have I have a family, I have 3 kids. Oh no, let's go. So to me, starting from scratch is almost like a second nature. You do what you got to do to make ends meet, right? So on top of that, I do find a lot of uh I need.
To expel my creative energy if I could, so that's why a lot of other things that I do are relatively frivolous, like, you know, running D&;D games, uh, upgrading arcade systems, collecting 90s. You weren't kidding when you said they were really nerdy, super nerdy. I'm a hyper geek, right? And I'm also really big into music history because I have a vinyl record collection that just started because my wife bought me a turntable.
And so I've been looking at music history with my daughter who's also very keen on music history, and then one day just so happens as we was looking through a lot of the history of hip hop and I was explaining to her the evolution of Kylie Minogue from Pop Princess to diva. If we were going through the whole process, then I realized, hey, you know what, there's a lot of stuff here that I really do want to mix together for my own, you know, personal, yeah, and so I was thinking to myself, hey.
There's one big mystery that I haven't really looked into like how do these professional worldwide touring DJs raise their hands dancing and blowing whistles while mixing music sounds almost impossible. There's got to be. That's a real workout. There's got to be a huge skill set behind that, right? So the ever vigilant, ever listening.
Um, entity in my house that always listens to whenever we say something, AKA social media, you say, hey, maybe I should try learning to be a DJ, but of course the next thing I see is my Facebook feed filled with ads about how you didn't turn off the mic. You did not turn off the mic you switch it off or on, you'll always listen. Curious, how was the course like then? Did you have to attend classes every week, purchase your own equipment? Was
it online? Yeah, it feels like DJing is such a casual skill to learn and then you go for classes, you know. So how was that like? Guys, not only is that classes, but there's an exam just like. It's an exam. There's no getting away from it, right? Singapore Singapore. I mean skills future credit. It's a government subsidy, right? So let's not kid ourselves here. OK, so you obviously graduated from DJing. So what do you do with that now?
Um, just absolute self-gratification at home with my kids playing music that I like and then dancing maniacically that's the reward. That's true. Do you feel like you kind of miscalculated a little bit taking a course that kind of doesn't earn you a side hustle money kind of thing? Or do you feel like, you know, maybe it has helped you in your Job, not so much directly, but perhaps you know, the
kind of like soft skills that you learned from it, perhaps. OK, that's a tough one, right, because for me, I think I do find joy in just learning new things. That to me is one of the things that I, the reason why I do a lot of frivolous things, I do a lot of weird hobbies, niche stuff that nobody cares about. I actually love finding out things that are
really unique and really niche, right? So in this case, I would say there could be, and I'm just discovering it as I go along, a lot of impact to be as a person as I spin the music, as I mix the songs, I find a lot of joy in it and it helps me decompress after work. Yeah, so really on weekends. Sometimes I set it up and my wife has generously allowed me a space in the home you the thing she did she did she generously allowed me the space
to do it for me, right? So do you think that you're gonna, I don't know, explore the possibility of Being a DJ on the side, you know, with this professional certified skill. OK, to be honest, I wanted, OK, after the exam, which was nerve-wracking. I can't believe there's an exam, but I think my instructor just barely smiled and said, OK, you're competent. Shout out to my instructor. I love you, Zul. Absolutely fantastic. But um I think after that, I actually tried to
do a set at a friend's gathering recently. I'm, I'm hearing a sense of apprehension now from start to finish, absolutely. So I tried to make. my friend's party, get together, and to my, well, not to my surprise, nobody really cared that I was doing it, right, but the core people that kind of sat around me and asked me what this was, what are you doing, what music is this were mostly the teenagers and the kids.
So maybe kids' birthday parties. Is 0. OK, I, I have to ask, what about the music wise, you know, what is the genre that you are inclined to, I suppose, mix? OK, so I'm big on hip hop and R&;B, but the one thing that I challenged myself when I signed up for this class, and I said it right at the start to my instructor, to everyone in class to my own folly, was that I wanted to make 60s. Pop with recent 90s hip hop. I wanted to put Piram up against and I mix a mesh up Saloma
and I tried it, it is so hard. So I went for a little gathering slash party and the DJ did exactly that. I think there is a genre for that there is a market for it where they mix uh. Oldies and, and we're talking about vernacular oldies like you said, P R, Saloma and all that with current hits. For those who do, for those listeners who don't know who Pli and Saloma are, they are legendary, uh, Malay actors and singers from back in the day, from the Shore Run Run and run me show era. Um, I have
to ask you, Imran, about this exam. Uh, what was, what, what is a DJ? What does the DJ exam entail, please tell us. OK, so it was a 2 day full on course and the weekend course was Saturday and Sunday, 9 to 6. So it was right into the flames, get ready guys. The the instructional was fantastic. We were all given a a pretty much basic mixer DJ console for us to kind of start with and essentially we had to at the end of the second day.
Perform in front of the whole class, uh, uh, the ability to make at the bare minimum 2 songs and as many songs as you like as a maximum. Of course I was me being the foolish person I said I'm going to mix like 5 and 6. A lat foolish ambitious ambitious. Have you used all your credits or do you still have some spare left? And what are you going to do with that spare?
So much. I'm actually worried whether I can finish using my credit, yeah, because I had so much and that this was just this particular cost, this was just a drop in the ocean for it and I'm so grateful because I literally didn't have to pay anything at all and the sign up was so seamless. I was really very surprised, guys, because I really thought, oh man, this is a government initiative. There'd be a lot of hoops of fire, but no, I signed. Um, the rep from Hustle SG called me and made
it very simple. I was in there like underwear by the by like 2 or 3 calls, good to go, signed up, and essentially I have so much more credits that I'm looking, OK, what's next? It's a super deep rabbit hole, right? If you guys haven't been on the SkillsFuture credit page and look at the dashboard, paralysis there. Oh my God, there's like something around like 300.
types of stuff you can learn everything from cooking, cooking cleanliness and I know you want to get that one pot meal going, you know, you can do it and they'll even teach you how to clean, uh, properly afterwards. Alright, so the two of you might be classmates soon. I won't be signing up for that one. Maybe I'll conduct the class to teach that one.
Imran, always fun to chat with you, man. It's, uh, it's really fun and thanks for inspiring us to, you know, not just look at skills future from a job's perspective, but just do some be a learner. Just be a learner, learn new things every day. You don't have to pigeonhole yourself and pigeonhole your skills credit future skills future. Credits, uh, to do, uh, just worky stuff. Thanks very much. And you go have fun. I will see you at the next kid's birthday party. Let's go. Thank you so much.
That's Imran, marketing director at Big Thunder. He just took his SkillsFuture credits to learn how to DJ. You can too.