Slew of programmes available to meet challenges in job matching: Tan See Leng

WHILE the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed persons reached a high of 1.63 in June this year, many of these openings were in the construction sector where the shortage has been due to public health border measures, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng on Tuesday.

Just under one in three (27 per cent) job vacancies were unfilled for six months or more, based on latest available data from 2020, a figure that is "actually down slightly" from the pre-Covid situation, said Dr Tan in Parliament.

"Some vacancies take longer to fill because the wage or working conditions are not as attractive as other options available to jobseekers. If they remain persistently unfilled, the business may need to redesign the job role, or even review their strategy," he said.

For job redesign support, he pointed companies to Workforce Singapore's (WSG) Support for Job Redesign under the Productivity Solutions Grant. The grant, which was launched in December last year, pairs enterprises with job redesign consultants to redesign their work processes, tasks and responsibilities.

Other vacancies may persist because the employer is hoping to get someone who is fully trained and ready to jump straight into the job, he said.

But employers have found that people recruited through the Career Conversion Programme (CCP) are a good fit, he noted, adding that about nine in 10 people placed through CCPs remained employed after 24 months, and about seven in 10 earned more than their last drawn salaries.

Meanwhile, to help workers cope with digital disruption, Dr Tan said there are plans in place to help workers acquire basic digital literacy skills, implement digital technology, and develop deep technology skills.

For the first category of workers, the government is working with unions, trade associations and chambers, companies and education institutions.

Under the SME Digital Reboot programme, for instance, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and NTUC LearningHub will work with 500 small amd medium-sized enterprises to provide workers with training in areas such as digital marketing and digital communication.

For the second category, WSG has partnered the Singapore Business Federation to launch the Industry 4.0 Human Capital Initiative (IHCI) to encourage the trial and adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Nearly 90 companies have come on board IHCI, with another 210 expected to do so by September 2022, said Dr Tan.

Parallel to this effort, the unions and employers have also established more than 600 company training committees, where they work closely together to drive business and workforce transformation, including in digital competencies.

For those looking to develop deep tech skills, Infocomm Media Development Authority's TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) initiative serves to meet this demand, having placed and trained more than 10,000 locals in good tech jobs since 2016, with 2,500 placed last year in 2020, said Dr Tan.

Locals placed through TeSA have taken on jobs such as systems analysts or data scientists, across sectors including information and communications, financial services, professional services, manufacturing, and wholesale trade and retail.