ST Forum: Budget’s focus on securing career resilience is heartening

As a career coach, I am heartened that the Budget’s focus is on both handouts and skills acquisition to insure Singaporeans’ career resilience.

The introduction of the Jobs-Skills Integrators initiative stands out, and I hope it takes off soon. The objective of matching trained workers with value-added and meaningful jobs is an appropriate one. The devil is in the details. 

We will have to continue to contend with a tight labour market. It has been said that Singapore’s strength is our people and we need to leverage our local talent.

With the emphasis on getting fathers to be more involved with bringing up their children, there will be a pool of Singaporeans of both genders that will prefer more flexible working arrangements to manage their work and personal commitments.

For this group, doing part-time or gig work would be an option. To be able to do this, regular reskilling is necessary.

Persons with disabilities are another manpower resource that could be better tapped. I’m heartened to learn that the Budget aims to continue encouraging and supporting employers that are trying to bring these groups of talent into the workforce. 

In addition to skills enhancement, we must not overlook the importance of supporting this group to renew and strengthen their self-confidence, as this is the basic minimum to begin the learning journey.

As our leaders go about implementing the plans set out by the Budget, Singaporeans must also be prepared to have a continuous career development plan for an ever-changing world and to be able to continue doing meaningful work. 

This way, we ensure the continued success of not just ourselves, but also future generations.

Paul Heng