Against a rocky economic backdrop, the Government is piloting new approaches to help Singapore workers acquire skills that are in demand so they can get jobs.

The initiative, dubbed the TechSkills Accelerator, identifies the specific skills required by industries that are growing and working with training providers, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Thursday (March 24).

It will also develop industry-recognised skill standards and certifications, while working with employers, both multinationals and start-ups, to commit to hiring and paying based on certified skills proficiency, instead of academic qualifications alone.

“The demand for ICT (information and communication technology) professionals is growing because it can enable many new businesses as well as disrupt existing ones,” Mr Heng said during his Budget address.

“To drive our Smart Nation effort, we will need many more of our own experts, in a wide variety of skills — programmers and coders, cybersecurity specialists, user-experience designers.”

The crunch in talent has driven up wages, pushing the average starting pay of computer engineering graduates to around S$4,000 last year — up by over 14 per cent. By 2020, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) estimates that the sector will create about 30,000 new jobs.

The IDA will join forces with major information technology employers and associations, such as the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation and the Singapore Computer Society, in this effort.

“TechSkills Accelerator will pioneer new ways of enabling Singaporeans to be at the frontier of learning and knowledge, to seize opportunities in new growth areas,” said Mr Heng, adding that similar efforts will be made in other growth sectors in the coming years.

Jobless Singaporeans will also get a hand. The Manpower Ministry (MOM) will launch its own initiative, called Adapt and Grow, to help those without work adapt to changing job demands and get the skills needed to find new work.

For a start, wage support schemes will be expanded to encourage firms to hire those facing difficulty in finding work. New professional conversion programmes — in sectors such as ICT and design — are in the pipeline, while efforts to match mid-career job-seekers to find work in small and medium enterprises (SME) will be strengthened.

Overall, the Government plans to expand its reach to more than 4,000 professionals, managers, executives and technicians — more than double the current figure covered by existing programmes.

MOM will commit an additional S$35 million a year from the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund and Skills Development Fund to support these initiatives.

In his speech, Mr Heng emphasised the need to constantly upgrade skills. Even in new and growing sectors such as ICT, technologies change rapidly and new skills are constantly needed, he said.

“I appreciate that it is not easy for those who are retrenched to learn new skills and find new jobs. But if we remain adaptable, learn, unlearn and re-learn quickly, we can stay relevant and seek new careers,” said Mr Heng.

Singapore began its push to get workers to accept life-long learning as second nature in November 2014, when the SkillsFuture initiative was launched. Study awards that help individuals develop specialist skills across 12 areas, including aviation and social service, via a S$5,000 grant, have been given out since last October.

In addition, anyone aged 25 and above can tap into an annual S$500 credit to attend courses conducted by approved training providers and pick up skills on everything from bread-making to clothes alteration.

Social worker Yap Chui Hoon was cited by Mr Heng as an example of a life-long learner who benefited from the study award. An ITE graduate, Ms Yap has been working for more than a decade, learning on the job through part-time courses. Now, she has started a degree programme in social work to better help clients at the APSN Centre for Adults.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Valerie Koh Swee Fang

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]