The labour movement will launch a new department next
year to identify work opportunities of the future to help better
match workers to up and coming jobs.
From Jan 1, it will open a Future Jobs, Skills and
Training department to gather data on specific companies and
industries where new investments and jobs will be over a three year
timeframe. It will work with unions, professional associations,
government agencies, consultancies and educational institutes to
identify these opportunities, said National Trades Union Congress
(NTUC) assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay on Tuesday (Nov
1).
The research will then be disseminated to training
providers and institutes of higher learning where it can be used to
develop more relevant skills and training courses for Singaporeans.
The NTUC Education and Training Fund can be used to support
training programmes if national funding is not available, said Mr
Tay, who will head the new department.
The first five sectors the unit will start pilot
projects in by 2019 are financial services, infocomm technology and
media, precision engineering, healthcare and education, said Mr
Tay, who also heads the Government Parliamentary Committee for
Manpower.
He added that ongoing work in this area is mainly in
matching people who are currently unemployed with the currently
available jobs, but the new department will be more
forward-looking.
"Everybody is vulnerable because of the rate of job
obsolescence...We have lots of jobs but how we can minimise the
mismatch of people to jobs will be a challenge for a long time to
come," said Mr Tay at a media briefing about the initiative.
ST