Professor Sung is an international expert in workforce development and skills policy, with a distinctive focus on how “skills-first” architectures translate into organisational performance, job quality and inclusive growth. His recent work spans the design and evaluation of Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs), skills passports and micro-credentials; the measurement of skills utilisation at firm and sector level; and the development of a framework and diagnostics for a Skills-First policy to track policy and employer adoption. He also leads empirical studies on informal learning using time-use and linked survey data to understand how adults acquire and deploy skills outside formal education.

Before 2011, Professor Sung led UK-based research (at the University of Leicester) funded by government departments, research councils, professional bodies and international agencies (e.g., ILO and the World Bank), with projects on sectoral skills strategies, workplace learning and productivity. From 2011, he relocated to Singapore to establish and direct the Centre for Skills, Performance and Productivity (CSPP) at the Institute for Adult Learning, delivering national studies on skills utilisation, business performance and the OECD PIAAC surveys, and evaluating major workforce initiatives (including SkillsFuture/WSQ). Since returning to the UK in late 2019, he has continued active collaborations with Singapore, while advising the European Commission, OECD, ILO, UNESCO, and national governments on ILA governance, sustainable funding models, and employer engagement. His current agenda integrates comparative policy analysis and work redesign with firm-level evidence to help systems move from qualifications-centric approaches to genuinely skills-first practice.

Professor Sung serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Training and Development. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore and an Honorary Fellow at SKOPE (Department of Education, University of Oxford). He is also a Thematic Expert on Individual Learning Accounts for the European Commission, supporting Member States in adopting and implementing ILAs under the 2022 Council Recommendation on individual learning accounts.