25/09/2020

More Support On Skills And Jobs For Residents Who Need Help

The Community Development Councils (CDCs), SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) affirmed their commitment to support Singaporeans in skills and jobs.

Ms Low Yen Ling, Chairman of Mayors’ Committee and Mayor of South West District, Mr Ong Tze-Ch’in, Chief Executive, SSG, and Mr Gilbert Tan, Chief Executive, e2i, inked the SkillsFuture Advice (SFA) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today.  

Presided by the Guest of Honour, Education Minister Mr Lawrence Wong, and witnessed by four Mayors Ms Denise Phua, Mr Desmond Choo, Mr Alex Yam, Mr Fahmi and Chief Executive of People’s Association Mr Lim Hock Yu.  

The SFA MOU is a three-year agreement between SSG, e2i and the five CDCs to provide more support for Singaporeans in skills upgrading and career planning.  The MOU will end on 31 August 2023.

Bridging Communities

The CDCs’ role in the SkillsFuture landscape is to help to bridge between community networks, training partners, employability partners and community and corporate stakeholders so that they can bring lifelong learning, skills upgrading and reskilling closer to the residents. 

CDCs will continue to Aggregate lifelong learning and employment resources for ease of access by residents; Build a community of self-directed learners through the curation of effective and impactful programmes and initiatives; and Connect residents to resources to support them in their journey towards skills upgrading and lifelong learning.

SkillsFuture Advice

SFA is a community outreach initiative that was launched in 2017.  It helps residents to navigate through the SkillsFuture landscape and help them better understand their own strengths, and help them be more aware of the types of skills needed in today’s employment as well as the types of skills required for future at work.  To date, over 110,000 people attended more than 4,300 SFA Workshops since 2017.

Working in conjunction with employability partners, government agencies, corporate organisations, training partners and residents, CDCs will broaden the SFA initiative to provide even more support for Singaporeans. 

SFA is targeted to reach out to additional 120,000 individuals by 2023 through workshops and outreach activities.  With more workshops planned during the three-year extension, SFA aims to build a learning community that is empowered by the tools provided to them.

The free workshops are made easily accessible to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents, namely fresh school leavers, working professionals, mid-career switchers, returning professionals and individuals in their golden years.  These workshops are currently conducted virtually for residents in four languages. 

Extension of SkillsFuture@CDC 

The SkillsFuture@CDC initiative comprising (a) Facebook live chats; (b) virtual workshops cum talks, and (c) SkillsFuture@CDC website, has enjoyed great success, offering job opportunities, industry insights and career workshops to online audience.  In collaboration with 19 partners, the CDCs will therefore extend the SkillsFuture@CDC initiative until July 2021.  

The SkillsFuture@CDC website called www.futureofyoucdc.org.sg is a one-stop resource platform for residents to build their capabilities.  The CDCs will pull together resources related to jobs and skills onto this platform, working in partnership with SGUnited Jobs and Skills, so that residents can access these resources anytime and anywhere.  

After residents attended their SkillsFuture Advice workshops, they can immediately check out the SkillsFuture@CDC website www.futureofyoucdc.org.sg to reskill, upskill or new skills, as well as to look for job found in the community job fairs throughout the heartlands.  These job fairs are organised by e2i and other partners.

Quotes by Signatories 

Ms Low Yen Ling, Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Culture, Community and Youth, Chairman of Mayors’ Committee and Mayor of South West District  
“The extension of SkillsFuture Advice comes at a time when Singaporeans need exceptional support in employability.  Our priority is to expedite job search opportunities and ramp up programmes and initiatives to meet the growing demand for upskilling and reskilling.  This is a critical time, and hence we’re aggregating the five CDCs’ efforts and leveraging upon our combined resources and partnerships to arm residents with wider learning and employment resources, as well as connect them to advice and career prospects critical for securing a better future.  As we do so, we’re also building communities of self-directed learners and a learning culture that will position Singapore in a good stead for the long run.”

Mr Ong Tze-Ch’in, Chief Executive, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)
“The extension and expansion of the SkillsFuture Advice partnership is a timely one. In this challenging period, we want to reach out to as many Singaporeans as possible, to let them know what they can do to reskill and upskill themselves, and remain employable.  The CDCs and e2i’s partnership with SkillsFuture Singapore will enable the national SkillsFuture movement to continue to reach the community, and get more Singaporeans to embark on their lifelong learning and skills mastery journeys.”

Mr Gilbert Tan, Chief Executive, Employment and Employability Institute (e2i)
“NTUC’s e2i through the SkillsFuture Advice teams, has been working at the community level over the past three years to offer employment and training advisory to Singaporeans.  Many adults and students have benefitted from having a better understanding about their career interests and knowing how to develop their personal training plan.  Our job in this will continue, in close partnerships with People’s Association,  Community Development Councils and SkillsFuture Singapore, to reach out to more Singaporeans, enabling them to continue a journey of lifelong learning,” 

Quotes by Mayors

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng, Mayor of Central Singapore District 
“Developing a lifelong learning mindset cannot be left to chance.  Through the SkillsFuture offerings, the CDCs will persuade more residents to see lifelong learning as a way of life and seize every chance to self-drive their learning to stay relevant and agile.  We are determined to invest and work with more training partners to create event more learning opportunities for our residents to improve their lives and livelihoods.”

Mr Desmond Choo, Mayor of North East District
“For many of our fresh graduates, employability is at the top of mind.  Besides the virtual job fairs and traineeship programmes that have been put in place to segue them into employment, we hope to introduce them to the availability of workshops and resources under SkillsFuture@CDC.  These will impart valuable industry-related skills to them and position them well for a secure future.”

Mr Alex Yam, Mayor of North West District
“With the success of SkillsFuture@CDC 2020, which was a fully virtual event, we have seen how digitalisation opens up opportunities and channels for growth.  At North West CDC, we plan to build on the foundation of the MOU and play our role as the enabler in the district.  We will aggregate and curate relevant upskilling topics by tapping on the expertise of partners, while focusing on digital inclusion by equipping all residents, including seniors who may face some initial difficulty with adoption of technology, with skills to harness online tools.”

Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman, Mayor of South East District
“The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the job market has only reinforced the importance of upskilling to remain relevant in the workforce.  With the support of our partners, our community initiatives under SkillsFuture Advice has provided job opportunities and skills assistance to our residents who will be empowered by the support given.  Jobs and training continue to be one of our core priorities as we gradually emerge stronger from the pandemic as a community.”

SkillsFuture In Dialogue  

The SkillsFuture@CDC dialogue session was chaired by Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Education, and hosted by Ms Low Yen Ling; Ms Denise Phua, Mayor of Central Singapore District; Mr Desmond Choo, Mayor of North East District, Mr Alex Yam, Mayor of North West District; and Mr Fahmi Aliman, Mayor of South East District. 

Themed “Co-Creating the Future of You”, the dialogue session with District Councillors, employers, and partners would delve on how to future proof workers and how to support employers in helping their employees reskill and upskill to stay relevant. The panel would also national and community programmes that support business and digital transformation for the community.