By Shukry Rashid
Are you or someone you know working in a sunset industry? Are you or that individual likely to be left behind due to a lack of skills?
To offer more support to these group of workers, the Labour Movement’s Future Jobs, Skills and Training (FJST) department held the inaugural FJST Forum on 11 January 2018. It consisted of panel discussions on jobs at risk and future skills.
This is in line with its direction in 2018 to help workers who are at greater risk of being displaced.
During the session, six sectors with critical growth were identified – financial services, infocomm and technology, healthcare, manufacturing, engineering, and wholesale trade.
Besides identifying the workers who are in at-risk jobs, the Labour Movement will also work on action plans to upskill these workers and help them get in-demand jobs.
FJST Department Director and NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay said: “The Labour Movement, with our expanded networks and direct engagements with working people, management and tripartite partners, is well-positioned to be the best source partner for the Government to bring its various industry transformation efforts to the ground. The FJST Forum is an example of a concerted effort between like-minded partners to vision the future and coordinate collaborative action between different stakeholders; and more importantly, translate that into real, tangible action plans to benefit workers.
“It is such collaborations that will create and sustain change – whether in the mindset of workers who are ‘cushioned’ in their existing roles, management who are looking to take their businesses to the next stage, or industries that are looking to transform.”
Advice for Workers
Mr Tay said that to help workers be prepared for the future, he emphasised on the three Cs – collaborations, change in mindset and communications.
He added that there must be deeper and coordinated collaborations between the Labour Movement and other stakeholders such as the Government, institutes of higher learning, and industries. These collaborations will maximise the impact of industry transformation initiatives such as training, workshops and Industry Transformation Maps.
Workers’ mindsets must also change towards training and upgrading in the form of bite-sized, “just-in-time” training modules and lifelong learning. Mr Tay also called on employers to recognise such methods of learning, and provide due recognition to workers who take initiative towards upskilling.
Mr Tay also said the Labour Movement’s extensive network such as its U Associate partners can help in aggregating concerns across different industry stakeholders. This enables the Labour Movement to be in a position to communicate to the various industries and tackle industry-specific challenges.
Getting to Work
Moving forward, the FJST department will also work with stakeholders to analyse sectors and industries affected by disruptions. The methodology will be based on FJST department’s proposed framework on changing mindsets through collaborative action and addressing the underlying factors behind the mindset challenge toward future-skilling.
The factors consist mostly on the lack of awareness on disruption and the fear of change.
On top of reviewing and updating reports on pilot growth sectors, FJST will also identify crucial skills that are not highlighted by the Industry Transformation Maps.
