As Minister Gan Kim Yong outlined at the 15th MTI Economic Dialogue this past week (Aug 28), there are future opportunities for Singapore and Singaporean workers to seize in this changing world.
His words come backed with our Government’s track record of success in steering the nation forward, no matter the times.
Source: Gan Kim Yong / Facebook
Government-led career upskilling
“We must invest in our workforce and ensure that it has the relevant skillsets to take on new tasks and roles. Workers will have to adopt a life-long learning mentality and constantly refresh and upgrade their skills. The Government will strongly support this endeavour,” said Minister Gan.
The CareersFinder jobs search engine and Workforce Singapore’s Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) are key steps in this direction.
Source: Workforce Singapore / Facebook
In particular, the CCPs are a $1 billion (and counting) investment which have helped over 40,000 Singaporeans reskill into new industries since 2016. There are even CCPs now that train sustainability professionals; these will ensure that Singaporean workers are ready for the increasingly green economy of the future.
These are also impactful since nine out of 10 Singaporean workers want career development and learning opportunities — the CCPs are sustained Government action towards fulfilling these aspirations.
A long-term vision
Our Government is also strengthening Singapore’s economic connectivity to bring in new knowledge and for trading with new markets.
“Singapore must resist the pressure to turn inwards and become more protectionist. We have always earned our living by remaining open, expanding our economic space, and staying connected to the world,” said Minister Gan.
Here, our Government is positioning Singapore as a regional business hub for the new age — and quite successfully too.
This creates good jobs for Singapore’s workers as well as more wealth to share.
A global biofuel trader with a Singapore headquarters not only means Singapore becomes a future-economy-ready trading centre, for example. It also supports an ecosystem of local professional services firms and can even attract global-level talents to this little red dot, who can impart their top-tier skills to Singaporean workers.
All these training and connectivity efforts are necessarily long-term plans by Minister Gan and our Government. Reskilling takes time. So does building Singapore’s reputation as, and maintaining national infrastructure for, a trusted place to do business.
Rome was not built in a day, though. It is the same process, and plan for success, with Singapore’s economic future.
Source: Workforce Singapore / Facebook
Plus, our Government’s ability to take early action against upcoming challenges is an assurance that Singapore’s workers will stay strong and thrive in the months ahead — and that going forward for growth in the future economy, all roads will lead to Singapore.
