by George Soriano
Some 680 job seekers attended the Back2Work with U Job Fair organised by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS) on 25 October 2013 at the new e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) campus at Jurong East.
The event, which primarily targeted women job seekers, saw about 2,000 job vacancies from 12 employers in various sectors such as call centre, education and food and beverage available for women looking to rejoin the local workforce.
“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. By helping them learn more about their possible future work environment, it will help ease worries and help them to better decide if the jobs are suitable. To enhance their employability, we also support them with pre-training to refresh or acquire new knowledge and regain their confidence to return to the workforce. Ultimately, we hope this could also further improve the employment rate of female workers in Singapore,” Ms Sylvia Choo, Director of WDS commented.
To this end, WDS tapped on successful runs of "Jobs on Wheels For U", which was launched last year in an effort to connect more women job seekers with potential employment opportunities. Over 80 pre-registered job seekers were able to visit three different companies, namely Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford, SATS Limited and SP Services Limited, to gain valuable first-hand knowledge and experience of the jobs available there.
Prior to the Back2Work with U Job Fair, WDS also organised two sessions of the Employability Camp (EC) to help these female job seekers better prepare for job interviews and gain valuable insight into the different sectors.
“To enhance their employability, we also support them with pre-training to refresh or acquire new knowledge and regain their confidence to return to the workforce. Ultimately, we hope this could also further improve the employment rate of female workers in Singapore,” Ms Sylvia Choo, Director of WDS commented.
The job fair also saw the participation of “enlightened companies” that have initiated friendly workplace adjustments to encourage women to return to the workforce, including Mothercare, Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford.
Through these efforts, WDS wants to help more women back to work so that they can earn a living and augment the workforce. WDS also 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 shortage in Singapore.
