An artificial intelligence-powered jobs search portal
has been launched to better connect jobseekers with career
opportunities relevant to their skills.
MyCareersFuture.sg, which will eventually replace
the National Jobs Bank, seeks to reduce “missed matches” by
recommending jobs that are best matched to the job title, skills
and minimum salary desired, indicated by the user.
The portal, first announced by Second Minister for
Manpower Josephine Teo during the Budget debate last month, was
officially launched on Tuesday (April 17) at the inaugural Adapt
and Grow roadshow, which showcased a series of Workforce
Singapore’s (WSG) career preparation and matching services.
Mrs Teo had said in March that four in 10 of 25,000
jobseekers placed via the Adapt and Grow initiatives, which seek to
help Singaporeans affected by economic slowdown and restructuring,
encountered some form of job mismatch. This proportion has grown
significantly from just 25 per cent in 2016, she said.
Developed by statutory boards WSG and the Government
Technology Agency, the portal uses machine learning technology to
scour various job descriptions posted in the Jobs Bank and filter
the skills required for each type of job.
The user can then check off the skills he or she
possesses and view results of the search, where jobs which best
correspond with the skills declared will show up at the top, each
labelled with a percentage indicating the extent of match.
For instance, a user who searches for the keyword
“accountant” will be prompted with a list of relevant skills, such
as “financial reporting”, “budgets”, “account reconciliation” and
“Microsoft Excel”, among others.
A search for jobs related to “journalist” will render
skills such as “social media”, “blogging”, “new media” and “online
journalism”.
The user will also receive recommendations of jobs in
other sectors matched to the skills they had provided.
On Tuesday, Mrs Teo said that the new jobs portal aims
to provide a “smarter and faster way” for jobseekers to find
opportunities.
“New jobs keep coming up, and skills and profiles of
jobs are changing very quickly… (the portal) will indicate to you
how much of a skills match you have (to your desired jobs). You can
then ask yourself, where are the areas in which you can enhance
your skills, and how to find the opportunites that will enable you
to do so,“ she said.
In the long-term, the authorities aim to link
MyCareersFuture.sg closely with MySkillsFuture, an education and
career guidance portal aimed at helping Singaporeans chart their
learning and plan their career paths.
About 280,000 visitors have used MyCareersFuture.sg
since it went live on Jan 2. One of them is 43-year-old Simon Oh,
who said it has helped him to narrow down his job search based on
his skills.
“I think in the past, I used to throw out resumes all
over the place, but that was not very focused and I realised it was
not working out,” said Mr Oh, who was let go by his previous firm
in the oil and gas industry last October amid corporate
restructuring.
Mr Oh, who was trained in mechanical engineering but is
currently taking a part-time course in computer science, now has
his eye on the technology industry.
Through the portal, jobseekers can also find employers
who are open to hiring mature workers, as well as those who are
willing to recruit people without relevant experience. They can
also filter job opportunities based on location.
MyCareersFuture.sg is currently available only for
jobseekers’ use, but an interface for employers is in the works. It
will be up by the end of the year, and allow employers to update
the core skills needed and application status for each role more
efficiently, said WSG.
In the meantime, employers will continue to post jobs
and search for candidates via the Jobs Bank, which is synced to the
portal. More than 300,000 jobseekers and 30,000 employers have used
the Jobs Bank since its launch in July 2014. It now receives about
44,000 job postings per month.
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