Bringing youths closer to local start-up companies

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Earlier this year, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) partnered the People’s Association (PA) to start a new career support initiative specifically for fresh graduates and young professionals, managers, executives (PMEs) to achieve professional success. Named “Todo Todo”, the initiative was launched in Tampines GRC on 30 April 2017 and NTUC and PA will continue to introduce the initiative to residents of different GRCs. As of today, the two partners have a combined youth network of 750,000.

 

Today at Rivervale Plaza, Todo Todo will be focusing on linking youths to start-ups and have brought their suite of career programmes to Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC through The Skills Marketplace @ Pasir Ris-Punggol. The Skills Marketplace @ Pasir Ris-Punggol featured many local start-up companies who were there to share their entrepreneurial stories with curious and aspiring youths and showcased employment opportunities to youths who were looking to start a career in the start-up industry. Some of these founders included Issac Tay from Honestbee and Adrian Ang from SGAG. These local start-ups provide an exciting space for youths who are especially drawn to the flexible and dynamic work environmen. Start-ups operations are usually manpower lean to keep cost low and because of that, employees can get deep into the action and juggle many roles. Although the learning curve is steep, it is a good springboard for youths looking to have a jumpstart in their career as they would have gained valuable experience.

 

Some of the start-ups present at The Skills Marketplace @ Pasir Ris-Punggol include:

a. AfterYou – Portal offering affordable part-time cleaners, caregivers, tutors 

b. Reactor – a leader of entrepreneurship training programmes for secondary, integrated programmes, and tertiary students in Singapore

c. Wantedly – a social recruiting platform that aims to connect people to jobs based on passion and company culture

 

“Our younger Singaporeans want dynamic and purposeful careers. They have varied interest and aspirations and for them, there is no longer just one set career pathway. The start-up scene is an exciting one for youths with its fast-pace, on-the-job learning and youthful environment.  These companies can be important engines of growth for Singapore in the future.  And we need Singaporean youths to pick up the rights skills to anchor this growth.  For youths who are willing to take up the challenge of working in a start-up, this experience will give them a good foundation to take on the working world.” Mr Desmond Choo, Executive Secretary, Young NTUC. 

 

“It is encouraging to see many of our local start-up companies step forward and  provide the youths with entrepreneurial insight and opportunities at the Todo Todo Skills Marketplace. Through the partners’ efforts, and support of our Career Guides, our youths will now be able to build up their career knowledge and consider their options prior to entering the work force,” said Mr Maximus Tan, Vice – Chairman of Punggol 21 Community Club Youth Executive Committee.

 

Additionally, fifty Career Guides were recruited from the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, with the total number of careers guides in Todo Todo’s pool now standing over 150. The Career Guides are young professionals and play an important role in guiding other youths in their career. The volunteer Career Guides have stepped forward from both the NTUC Youth Career Network programme and PA’s extensive grassroots and business networks. These Career Guides are also PMEs themselves who joined the workforce in recent years and are well-placed to share their personal experiences and to advise young job entrants.  Many were present to conduct the mentorship session at the marketplace.

 

These career guides have helped the youths in their career pursuits. For example, during the mentorship session previously, Kia Jie Hui, a Senior Sustainability Adviser from the Forum for the Future mentored Melissa Choi, an 18-year-old Raffles Junior College student who hopes to study urban planning in university. Jie Hui guided Melissa on her scholarship application to a public-sector agency and the other possible routes to take. She also shared with her the difference between working in a public and private sector. This mentorship has enabled Melissa to sharpen her career goals and knowledge in the urban planning and sustainability area and she came away from the mentorship period having a clearer idea on her career path.

 

Participants at The Skills Marketplace @ Pasir Ris-Punggol were also able to sign up for a learning journey tour to the workplaces of some of these start-up companies to see first-hand working environment and meet the founders up close and personal to gain some insights. North East Community Development Council (CDC) SkillsFuture Advice team and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) were also at The Skills Marketplace @ Pasir Ris-Punggol delivering career skills workshops for the youths.

 

More information and resources can be found on Todo Todo’s official website: http://www.todotodo.sg/ and its app, todotodo.sg.