The International Labour Organization (ILO) held the International Conference on Jobs and Skills Mismatch from 11 to 12 May, which saw more than 300 participants representing both developing and developed countries gather to deepen their understanding of issues such as skills gap, mismatches and shortages.
Gilbert Tan, who is NTUC assistant director-general and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) CEO, attended the conference on behalf of Singapore and the Labour Movement. We recently caught up with Gilbert Tan to find out what went on.
NTUC This Week: Skills mismatches, gaps and shortages are concerns facing every nation. Why do you think this is happening?
Gilbert Tan: First of all, the knowledge and skills needed for most business types are changing faster than ever. This results in a constant changing of demand for relevant skills.
To keep up, employers no matter from which country would rather take a “pluck-and-place” approach rather than train their workers. This means those with the right skills when changes happen will be successful while those who don’t would be stuck. So that gap between what skills industries require and what skills workers have will eventually widen.
The other issue facing most countries is that there is a focus in society on getting paper qualifications rather than attaining new and practical skills that industries demand.
What long-term implications will skills mismatch have for countries in the ASEAN region, especially Singapore?
Growth for most countries in ASEAN, including Singapore to a certain extent, depend on investments. For a global multi-national company to invest, or even a local small- and medium-sized enterprise looking to grow, they will look at firstly, where they can make money, and second, whether the local workforce has relevant skills to help the business grow.
If we don’t have the relevant skills for these investors, there will be fewer investments, and therefore fewer jobs will be created. This would turn into a vicious cycle.
What we can do is to pre-empt the types of skills needed for these investments and train the workforce in advance. For skills that are already there, we need to continue to deepen them to make sure companies continue to invest.
Did the conference bring up ways to solve these issues?
One keynote speaker did say that it is almost impossible to solve the problems of skills mismatch, gaps and shortages. However, he added that we can at least keep up with the changes and the closest way we can do so is to approach it like how Singapore has done with our SkillsFuture and Adapt and Grow initiatives.
In these two initiatives, we have the elements of career, training and education guidance. These are critical areas to match skills and to plug in skills gaps within industries. Through these initiatives, we are also getting employers to get more involved with the training of their workers, and the efforts provide effective support schemes for workers who want to transit careers.
Personally, I think Singapore can do this because of our ability to mobilise the ground through collaborative tripartism. In many countries, employers and unions don’t really trust each other, making it difficult for their governments to be able to place emphasis on things like training, which requires all three parties to work together. Trust and collaboration between these three parties will certainly help make things easier to tackle this challenge.
