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The Labour Movement joined women around the world today to celebrate International Women’s Day. Themed “Appreciating Her”, the celebrations at Downtown East this morning saw some 2,000 union members and their families joining in a mass dance session and enjoying a day of fun-filled fringe activities to celebrate the roles and contributions of women in the society.
Job Fair for Mature Workers
Other than the fun-filled activities, the NTUC Women's Development Secretariat (WDS) also held its first large-scale job fair for the year at the event, targeted to help mature workers gain employment. The job fair featured over 2,800 job vacancies from 17 employers from various sectors like food and beverages, education, healthcare, hospitality, retail, security, etc.
As Singapore is experiencing an ageing population, NTUC WDS recognised that women will need sufficient funds to take care of their medical and retirement needs during old age given an increasing life expectancy. However, insufficient savings is one of the many challenges that older and less skilled women face. Hence, NTUC WDS felt that it is important to provide more opportunities to this group of women who want to return to work so they can be financially independent and plan ahead for their golden years.
While there are still employers who are not inclined to employ mature workers due to various reasons like incurring higher costs and the impression that they are less productive, the employers who participated in this job fair are very receptive towards recruiting mature workers. Both Healthway Medical Group Pte Ltd and KidZania Singapore introduced new job positions that are suitable to mature workers at the job fair. (Please refer to Annex A for the companies’ write-ups and quotes.)
NTUC WDS is heartened that there are such enlightened companies that do not view mature workers as a strain to their bottom lines but value their skills and experiences. WDS urged employers to be more flexible and innovative when it comes to recruitment and job design so that this potential pool of economically inactive women can help to ease the labour crunch in Singapore.
Best Companies for Working Mums 2015
To further push for the adoption of flexible work arrangements (FWA), NTUC WDS has partnered with the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) to co-organise the “Best Companies for Mums” contest. Into its third year, the contest aims to draw out exemplary companies to be the champions of FWA and work-life balance, and to share their best practices with aspiring companies seeking to enhance the work-life harmony of their employees. (Please refer to Annex B for more information on the contest.)
In line with SG50 celebration, NTUC WDS will be introducing a new award category to the “Best Companies for Mums” contest. The new SG50 Special Award will give recognition to companies with dedicated FWA and employee support schemes that are specific and relevant to women of different life stages in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Companies that are awarded this special award will be able to showcase specified examples of women who have benefited or are currently benefiting from these specific schemes.
Honouring Her on International Women’s Day
During the event, NTUC WDS also gave special recognition to the women who have contributed and excelled in their respective workplaces. Ranging from laboratory technologist, maritime engineering officer to chambermaid and cashier, 64 women from 50 different vocations with outstanding contributions at their workplaces were honoured at the event. (Please refer to Annex C for the highlighted profiles on the women who were honoured.)
Moving forward
In conclusion, women form an integral part of Singapore’s society and have made great strides over the past few decades. Today, they are better educated and more are joining the workforce. However, there are still challenges faced by women in Singapore in fulfilling both economic and family roles, as they find the need to balance the competing priorities of work and family. Therefore, the NTUC WDS is determined to help those women who wish to return to the workforce find employment through its various programmes and advocacies.
“Many women job seekers who have been out of the workforce for some time, are worried that they may not be able to fit into their new workplaces or are unable to perform new tasks. These concerns are even more evident in mature workers. To enhance their employability, we will be supporting them with pre-training to refresh or acquire new knowledge and regain their confidence to return to the workforce. Ultimately, we hope this will further improve the employment rate of female workers in Singapore,” said Ms Sylvia Choo, Director of NTUC WDS.
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