Swee Say unveils more help for PMET job-seekers

Singapore

MORE help was unveiled on Thursday to help professionals, managers, executives and technicians looking for jobs.

Announced by Minister of Manpower Lim Swee Say, the aid comes in the form of beefed-up professional guidance and additional schemes offering wage and training subsidies for PMETs who want to work in the manufacturing sector.

The government-backed SkillsFuture Career Advisors programme under the Adapt & Grow initiative, which offers industry mentors to advise graduating students and job seekers on careers in various sectors is already in place.

Mr Lim said that 75 veterans and industry leaders across 10 industries in the manufacturing sector have just volunteered their services to the programme - a first for the manufacturing sector.

"PMETs and graduating students who are interested to explore jobs and career openings in the manufacturing sector but are unsure of the opportunities can seek advice from these advisers who will help them better understand the career pathways, skills and expertise required to join the industry," he said.

The 10 industries are aerospace and aviation; biopharma science; building and construction; chemical, energy and power; general manufacturing; logistics; marine and offshore; medtech manufacturing; precision engineering; and semiconductors and electronics.

The minister was speaking at a combined exhibition and career fair in advanced manufacturing at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment & Employability in Jurong East. The 31 companies participating at the career fair have 900 jobs to offer. They include openings for robotics application engineers, system engineers and technology development engineers.

All of the 31 companies are represented on the board of the Career Support Programme and Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs).

Mr Lim said that to help bridge any potential mismatch between such job vacancies and job seekers, his ministry is making available various support schemes under the Adapt and Grow initiative to both employers and job seekers.

"Mid-career and mature PMETs who do not have the necessary skills can tap WSG's (Workforce Singapore) PCP to equip themselves for these new opportunities."

Currently, there are more than 60 PCPs under the Adapt and Grow Initiative. The number doesn't include the eight that were launched on Thursday for the manufacturing sector. The latter covers the precision engineering sector and regional operations or technical roles for entry and mid-level PMET jobs.

Companies participating in these PCPs will get wage and training grants when they hire PMETs and mid-career switchers.

"In line with the commitment I made at COS (Community of Supply) earlier this year, four of the eight PCPs launched today (Thursday) are targeted at mid-level jobs," Mr Lim said. Even though manufacturing employment has declined in the past three years, the minister said, the decline was "not broad-based across all sub-sectors and all companies within each sub-sector".

He said that the manufacturing sector continued to offer many good jobs and career progression for Singapore workers. The share of PMET jobs in the sector has also risen, exceeding 60 per cent of the total in 2015 (60.3 per cent) - and continued to rise in 2016 (62.2 per cent).

"Thirdly, the median income of our local workers in manufacturing has been going up annually at 5 per cent in nominal terms and 3.6 per cent in real terms in the past five years," Mr Lim added.