Employers and employees both have part to play in workers' career health amid industry disruptions: Panellists

SINGAPORE: Both employers and employees have a part to play to ensure workers’ continued career health amid disruptions in the labour market, said a panel on Saturday (Mar 23).

On its part, the government will continue to support both workers and companies to upskill and stay relevant through various schemes, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, who was part of the panel discussion.

The panel discussion was part of the inaugural Career Forward two-day event organised by national media network Mediacorp, in partnership with Skillsfuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore (WSG).

Dr Tan had launched the event at the Sands' Expo & Convention Centre on Saturday morning, which also features a career fair as well as booths where attendees can gather information on learning resources and courses available from learning partners to support them in upgrading their skills.

As of 2pm, the event had drawn over 2,100 visitors.

WHAT PANELLISTS SAY

After launching the event, Dr Tan took part in a discussion on the topic of “How employers can empower workers to strengthen their career health”.

Also on the panel was OCBC Bank group chief executive officer Helen Wong and Dr Bicky Bhangu, co-lead of Action for Alliance, Widening Access to Talent, which is one of several industry-led coalitions working in partnership with the government.

Both employers and employees need to play their part in keeping abreast with disruption in the industry to stay relevant, said the panellists.

On the one hand, employees have the responsibility to “proactively engage and innovate”, said Dr Bhangu, who is also a council member of the Singapore National Employers Federation.

This can be done by “assessing where we are on our own career pathway”, identifying whether there is a gap in terms of skill sets necessary to bring us to the next stage of our careers, and taking the necessary steps of upgrading one’s skills to reach that goal, he added.

Ms Wong of OCBC said employers too stand to benefit by supporting their workers to upgrade their skills.

“Whichever (company) has a strong workforce that continues to grow, will help any organisation to help fulfill its purpose and achieve its mission,” she said.

This is why, she said, OCBC invests heavily into developing its talents through various initiatives. These include mentorship as well as redesigning jobs in line with digital transformation and training  workers to fill the redesigned roles.

Dr Tan drew attention to various ways the government helps workers to stay relevant in the workforce and embrace disruption, both directly and indirectly.

Various schemes such as SkillsFuture credit also incentivise workers to upgrade their skills and employers to support this endeavour, the minister said.

As for companies, the government helps them “remain on top of” industry developments and disruptions through the rolling out of Industry Transformation Maps, and providing supporting grants to offset some of the costs involved to send their workers for training.

"ACCELERATED" DISRUPTION

In his opening speech before the panel discussion, Dr Tan spoke about how technology-driven disruptions are occurring at an “accelerated” pace.

Against this background, it is important for workers to take ownership of their career health. Much like physical health, taking a preventative and proactive approach is always better, he added.

“Instead of acting only when things go wrong, we should be constantly actively, engagingly be developing our own career plans to pursue jobs and training opportunities in a focused and intentional manner,” said Dr Tan.

At the same time, it is in the interest of employers to support the career health of their workers.

“In tight labour markets especially, employers who support the career health of their workers will be better able to retain and attract workers.”

Dr Tan also gave updates on some government initiatives to help support workers in maintaining their career health.

One example is Polaris, a pilot programme which provides career guidance for employed individuals.

Within two months of its launch in November, the programme has been fully subscribed, and a quarter of the 200 participants have completed the programme hus far.

“With our early successes, WSG will scale up this pilot to cater to another 580 individuals - about two times more - this year. The new Polaris career guidance programmes are now open for registration, and I encourage everyone present to sign up with WSG quickly,” he said.

He added that the government will support workers with jobs and skills insights, such as through the CareersFinder feature on the MyCareersFuture portal, so that they can better plan their own careers and explore different opportunities.

Some 20 industry partners - including prospective employers, training providers and career consultants - are taking part in the Career Forward event.

It will also feature 50 speakers who will provide insights into various topics such as women’s careers and the glass ceiling, the prospects of careers in financial technology, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

A few visitors on Saturday told TODAY they came to the event to learn more about the latest developments in the labour market and to explore potential opportunities.

Mr Rohit Panda, 22, who just finished his full time National Service, was interested in finding a job in technology and cyber security.

“I saw one of the talks will be touching about technology and AI (artificial intelligence), (and) thought it would be useful for me to listen in and get insights about the industry,” said the polytechnic graduate.

Another visitor who only wanted to be known as Mr Teo, 37, said he was at the event to accompany a friend who was actively looking for a job.

At the same time, Mr Teo, who works in the built environment industry, said he was also “keeping an open mind” to possible opportunities.

“The hiring climate is not very rosy. So I’m here to see what exhibitors are there and what kind of opportunities are still available today.”

This article was originally published in TODAY.