1 The NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS) organises its second major job fair for the year under the Back2Work with U (B2W) Programme. This time round, NTUC WDS heeded the call from the women job seekers to put more women back to work through a dedicated offering of office-based work opportunities.
2 NTUC WDS regularly reviews the employment landscape and also makes serious assessments on feedbacks generated from its pool of female job-seekers. The objective set in this job fair is thus based on their feedback received on the preference for administrative, frontline, or other office positions. These jobs offer stable working conditions which typically equates to allowing the female workers better management in terms of work-life balance.
400 office-based jobs on offer at job fair
3 At this job fair held on 25 October 2011, at the Central Library’s The Plaza, at least 400 jobs - both full-time and part-time were on offer, targeting women who are keen to take up administrative jobs or have prior experiences in the related fields. The six participating employers/ agencies primarily came from the public sector, energy, education/ school and healthcare sectors.
4 For job seekers who have left the workforce for some time and may need refresher course for their resume and interview skills, NTUC WDS also held five pre-job fair training sessions where talks and tips on interview skills as well as information on the different sectors/ vacancies were shared to enhance their chance in getting a job at the fair.
Attracting more women back to the workforce
5 As NTUC WDS continues its quest to help more women enter or re-enter workforce through the B2W Programme, the emphasis remains on its key thrusts – Recruitment, Re-adjustment and Retention.
6 Singapore currently still faces a tight labour market, and NTUC WDS urges employers to be more proactive and innovative when it comes to attracting this potential pool of economically inactive women back to work.
7 Employers need to understand and look at offering flexible work arrangements or job re-design for these women whose main concerns include family care arrangements, aside fair remuneration package and work benefits. Thus it is important to partner suitable employers who can help place these women in better jobs which offer at least median pay in their respective sectors.
8 Going forward, NTUC WDS will continue to work with employers/partners to bring more employment opportunities which include Retail, Food & Beverage, Security and other major hiring sectors to benefit more women job seekers.
9 On an ongoing basis, NTUC WDS will also continue to collaborate with partners such as the Employment & Employability Institute (e2i) and NTUC Learning Hub to provide training opportunities in workplace English, IT skills etc, for those who require assistance or refresher course in these areas.
Achievements to date
10 Since the Back2Work with U (B2W) Programme started in 2007, NTUC WDS has successfully assisted 10,500 women with jobs arrangements. Whilst the focus on flexi-work arrangements (FWAs) started slightly later in 2008, it is also an encouragement that 320 companies have since committed to recruit about 7,500 workers on such arrangements.
11 Going forward, working closely with its various tripartite partners, NTUC WDS will continue to constantly review the employment landscape and bring across better programmes and initiatives which can further benefit working women in Singapore.
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