From matching at-risk and displaced workers to jobs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Job Security Council (JSC) will now shift its focus towards helping companies in their transformation efforts.
Additionally, from its recent learnings during the pandemic, the JSC will dive deeper into the skills needed across different job roles and industries so as to be better prepared to mobilise workers in an event of a mass retrenchment.
NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), the manager of the JSC ecosystem, has partnered with the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) to pool their resources to further strengthen the JSC’s network – which already consists of over 4,000 employer partners.
SNEF Executive Director Sim Gim Guan, NTUC’s e2i CEO Caryn Lim and NTUC Assistant Director-General Gilbert Tan came together on 17 October 2022 at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability to officiate their partnership through the signing of a memorandum of understanding.
The NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce first proposed strengthening the JSC in October 2021. The proposal was one of nine recommendations to alleviate the challenges faced by PMEs.
NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng was the guest-of-honour at the signing ceremony. Over 100 people attended the event.
Mr Ng shared during his opening speech that, prior to the pandemic, the JSC was initially introduced as a pilot programme to effect business and workforce transformation.
However, the JSC had to pivot its objective during the pandemic. The council instead leveraged its “lift and place” capability to facilitate the movement of workers from hard-hit sectors, to areas where there were still strong demand for manpower.
He said: “We want now to build upon the foundation of what we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic by placing workers through more specific and targeted treatment to support individual company needs, such as through placement or job redesign, and even through grant support like SNEF’s Productivity Solutions Grant or our NTUC’s very own CTC (company training committee) grant.”
Beyond helping companies transform, the partnership will also see NTUC and SNEF committing to use the JSC ecosystem to better support workers’ welfare and work prospects.
Ms Lim said that with SNEF’s support, e2i will be able to connect its job seekers to more companies and opportunities, whilst fulfilling the job matching and employment needs of companies.
She added: “With the new NTUC CTC Grant, we aim to give that needed boost for companies to walk their transformation map and ultimately uplift workers in their capabilities and employability.”
Employers can find out more about how SNEF supports the JSC at the SNEF website.
With the strengthening of the JSC, companies within the ecosystem can expect improved talent matching and tap on NTUC’s and SNEF’s end-to-end services for their business transformation needs.
Companies can also help future-proof their employees’ careers by exploring job redeployment or redesign through SNEF’s Productivity Solutions Grant.
