Jobs-Skills Integrators: execution must go beyond coordination

BUDGET 2023 sets out the ambition for quality, inclusive economic growth. The Jobs-Skills Integrators (JSI) was one of the key initiatives announced, in line with the vision set out in Forward SG, to empower every Singaporean to have lifelong employability amid an uncertain world.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong emphasised the need for training to translate into good employment outcomes, where the workforce is equipped to seize opportunities and enterprises remain competitive and relevant. The JSI is therefore envisioned as an intermediary that links up industry, training and employment facilitation partners to achieve that goal.

Complexities with the jobs-skills nexus

To employers, an ideal worker is one with the requisite skills to do the job immediately. However, the dynamic global business landscape makes it increasingly difficult to ensure that workers can fit job needs exactly, even after education and training.

Enterprises have highlighted their challenges in upskilling: they are unsure how job roles will evolve and consequently how skills will change; they face challenges in navigating a complex training provider landscape where programmes vary in quality; and have difficulty in ensuring that workers acquire relevant skills that effectively contribute to desired business outcomes.

At the same time, our workforce comprises a mixed profile of jobseekers, from fresh graduates to mid-career and mature workers. Each has varying levels of clarity on the next bound of skills needed and the job opportunities available.

Countries around the world face similar challenges. In Germany, where its education system is regarded as a powerhouse in producing a skilled workforce, its vocational education training (VET) system combines classroom and business; theory and practice; and learning and working into a highly effective model. This model seeks to create a seamless transition into enterprises for its workforce, by narrowing the gap between skills taught and the actual skills needed at work. Yet, the VET model does not encompass the concept of intermediaries like the JSI.

Singapore has been adopting a multipronged effort involving various stakeholders – government agencies, enterprises, institutes of continuous learning, adult training providers, trade associations and chambers (TACs) and unions – to enhance our national jobs-skills nexus.

Measures to help enterprises transform their jobs and skills requirements already exist, and efforts to upskill individuals through better formal and on-the-job learning have enhanced our workforce capabilities. There is now heightened expectation to reskill workers from one sector to meet the needs of another and ensure that such skilled manpower flows are achieved in a seamless manner. As such, trainings will increasingly need to take a cross-sector focus and consider skills portability.

The JSI is a timely initiative to tackle this. What does it take for the JSI to truly make an impact?

Integrating stakeholders across the value chain is key

Strategically, the JSI plays an integral role in making sense of the jobs and skills landscape by understanding the needs of both enterprises and workers. For this, the JSI needs to connect with various stakeholders for a holistic view of the entire jobs-skills integration programme in each sector and manage the funding allocation accordingly.

Tactically, the JSI needs to ensure that training providers develop and update relevant training offerings and increase access to the required talent by enterprises. The JSI should also ensure that potential workers are au fait with the critical skills needed and can access the right training providers to upskill accordingly.

For the JSI initiative to be robust and effective, watertight collaboration within the ecosystem of stakeholders is key on multiple fronts:

- Shape demand for jobs and skills

Efforts to identify jobs and skills that may evolve at the sectoral level were spearheaded through the Industry Transformation Maps (ITM), Jobs Transformation Maps (JTM) and Industry Digital Plans (IDP). The TACs and unions have an important role given their extensive network and can be instrumental in providing in-depth sectoral insights and aggregating demand for jobs and skills. Further, while existing grants and schemes are available for enterprises, they need more direct help in implementing the ITM, JTM and IDP initiatives.

- Develop and curate training programmes

The training provider landscape today is crowded and can be hard to navigate. Hence, the JSI is expected to work closely with well-established training providers to curate and update programmes in line with the identified sectoral needs. For instance, polytechnics may be tapped on as a key training partner for the JSI. There should also be a tight feedback loop between identified sector needs and training providers so that the training programmes remain relevant.

- Consolidate worker supply

We expect the JSI to have a consolidated view of the workers undergoing relevant training by JSI training providers. This facilitates their subsequent placement in enterprises. This can start with a “through-train registration” of these trainees, with support from stakeholders such as trade unions to build up a worker supply database.

- Facilitate “frictionless” matching and user experience

It is critical to design the matching process so that enterprises can access talent supply in a simple and seamless manner. Employment facilitation agencies can play a key role in direct-matching and supporting workers and enterprises. Additionally, TACs and trade unions are important multipliers in this effort.

- Manage programmes and funding

The JSI will need strong programme management capabilities to integrate and coordinate the efforts of all stakeholders. This is no simple task and requires dedicated resources. Funding needs to be carefully designed to incentivise the right training and placement outcomes, while ensuring that the cost is not prohibitive to workers and enterprises.

Execute with agility

The benefits of JSI for enterprises and workers will be manifold. Enterprises gain from increased access to a wider talent pool with sector-relevant skills, shorter time-to-hire, increased productivity, and lower hiring and training costs. Workers enhance their employability through better skills currency and access to improved employment and earnings prospects that support their career development across multiple sectors.

Yet, execution can make or break the JSI initiative. Will it serve as a multiplier to existing efforts or become another layer of coordination?

As we await details of the JSI initiative in the Committee of Supply debate, what is certain is that the JSI, enterprises and workers must adopt an agile mindset to learn, adapt and course-correct as implementation scales up.

Samir Bedi is EY Asean Workforce Advisory Leader and Goh Jia Yong is partner, People Advisory Services – Workforce Advisory, Ernst & Young Advisory Pte Ltd.

The views in this article are the writers’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organisation or its member firms