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SINGAPORE: More than 20,500 internship opportunities and links to the company have been made available under the SGUnited Traineeship and SGUnited Mid-Career programs, Human Resources Minister Josephine Teo said on Wednesday (October 14).
More than 2,800 job seekers have been placed in such opportunities, Ms Teo told Parliament. This means that around 13.7% of the internship and internship opportunities have been covered with the programs.
The top five sectors that together account for more than half of the vacancies are financial services, technology and information and media, professional services, wholesale and electronics, Ms Teo told Parliament.
SGUnited’s internship program and mid-career bonding program were launched on June 1 and August 1 respectively to help job seekers who cannot find permanent jobs in today’s market.
READ: Singapore’s overall unemployment rate in August rises beyond global financial crisis’ high
Ms Teo was responding to questions from Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament (MP) Carrie Tan and Bukit Panjang SMC MP Liang Eng Hwa about the programs.
In its eighth labor situation report published last Wednesday, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that “there continue to be mismatches in expectations and skills,” according to feedback from the field.
He said most opportunities remain unfilled as it “takes time” for job seekers to overcome reservations about switching to unknown roles.
“Employers are also getting used to looking beyond candidates whose backgrounds exactly match the jobs,” MOM said.
Less than a third of the opportunities created under the SGUnited Skills and Jobs Package were filled. As of the end of August, of the 117,500 opportunities available through SGUnited’s Jobs and Skills Package, about 33,100 people have been placed in these opportunities.
“Although the focus should now be on host companies to secure more successful locations, the SBF (Singapore Business Federation) continues to accept new applications from companies to host mid-career attachments for people starting before March 31, 2021, “he said. .
Ms Teo said that the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) approves most applications within four weeks. “How quickly an employer’s application is approved depends in part on the breadth of its submission,” he said.
“However, this is not a key bottleneck at this time, as there are many openings available for job seekers,” added Ms Teo.
“Once the proper matches are found and the necessary supporting documents are submitted to SBF, the internship or company attachment can begin,” added Ms Teo.
The SBF has a team of 25 people processing applications and will reach full capacity at the end of October.
Ms. Tan said her concern was about the resources available. Given that SBF staff are processing over 1,000 host organizations, he asked if Ms Teo would consider creating a “priority” lead for internship applicants whose family members are currently earning no income.
Ms Teo said that while it took SBF a while to assemble the team and process the applications, “at the moment, actually, the action is less at SBF and more in companies to get it done.”
READ: COVID-19: Changing careers is challenging for some job seekers despite opportunities
Between January and August, around 44,200 job seekers received job search services through SGUnited Jobs and Skills centers, as well as Workforce Singapore and the five permanent NTUC e2i career centers.
SGUnited Jobs and Skills centers, which were established in all 24 HDB cities to provide career search services, have been opened in phases.
Responding to comments from Rep. Gerald Giam that some residents have found that SGUnited’s job package appears to be more geared toward professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs), Ms. Teo said it was “wrong” to think that the most of the jobs that have been matched are for PMET.
“In fact, it has been easier to match people in roles that are not PMET,” he said.
“If you are a PMET, you see yourself as having a set of skills for which you would like to find the best match in an employer that recognizes your experience and can also pay a premium for those skills that you have,” he said. additional.
He said non-PMETs make up the majority of the roles that are combined in the SGUnited job and skills package.
According to MOM’s employment status report released last Wednesday, of the roughly 117,500 openings available at the end of August, 32,210 were for non-PMET roles, compared to 85,330 for PMET roles.
