Employment and Employability

COVID-19 has taken a toll on the Malay/Muslim workforce as Singapore rides through the economic impact of the pandemic. In order to remain resilient, M³ continues to play an integral role to support the community in ensuring that they can remain employed by having the necessary skillsets and optimising available opportunities.

Led by Mr Fahmi Aliman and launched in October 2020, this focus area aims to bridge our workers to employment and employability opportunities to meet their immediate needs. Through this focus area, M³ aims to enhance the capability of our workforce through skills upgrading and lifelong learning initiatives, thereby strengthening their resilience and ensuring their employability in the future.

This focus area will look towards reaching out to a range of jobseekers from mature jobseekers (40 years and above), PMET jobseekers (mid-career switchers), fresh graduates, young workers and the general community (including the self-employed, vulnerable and low-wage workers).

JUMP Campaign

Bringing various agencies together to tackle Job Opportunities, Upskilling, Mobility (Career) and Professional Development, in order to ensure our Malay/Muslim community remains mobile, agile and progressive in these economic times.

As part of the JUMP (Job Opportunities, Upskilling, Mobility (Career) and Professional Development) campaign, the JUMP Career Fair provides an employability platform for job seekers to find career and training opportunities. Organised by MENDAKI SENSE, the JUMP Career Fair was incepted in 2018 and started as a physical outreach. Since April this year, Virtual Career Fairs were rolled out to assist with the employment needs of jobseekers in the current pandemic situation. To date, JUMP has organised six Virtual Career Fairs, with more than 3,000 job seekers registered through the platform via Cari Kerja App.

Job Opportunities

MENDAKI SENSE, together with MESRA and its MAEC network, SkillsFuture Singapore, Workforce Singapore and Yayasan MENDAKI, are collaborating to organise both physical and virtual career events.

Apart from the virtual career fairs organised, physical events will be organised at various community centres across Singapore. Job opportunities in the growth sectors (early childhood, healthcare, manufacturing and social services) will be offered by participating companies and employers.

SkillsFuture Advice @ CDC (SFA@CDC) will be on board to engage participants and provide SkillsFuture Advice consultations, whilst MENDAKI SENSE will continue to provide personalised assistance to job seekers so as to broaden their understanding of jobs in demand and skills required in specific sectors. The collaboration targets to engage 20,000 jobseekers which includes 3,000 low wage workers, 1,000 vulnerable workers, and 5,000 tertiary students.

Upskilling

In collaboration with partners such as ITE, SalesForce, Union Leaders, MyFinB, MENDAKI SENSE has been running free virtual workshops/teasers on essential skills such as digital and financial literacy, as well as in-demand technical skills.

Through lighter programmes, this will create more accessible learning opportunities that are also less daunting, thereby encouraging participants to take greater investment into upskilling themselves. This will in turn enhance participants’ employability and continue to enhance success for the individuals and community. This collaboration is expected to run until March 2021 and targets 1,000 Malay Muslim online participants.

Mobility (Career)

Under the scope of mobility, MENDAKI SENSE will enhance and scale the outreach and impact of archetype-specific programmes for PMETs and Women Returning to Work. This is done through a collaboration with partners such as MENDAKI, AMP and PPIS.

Programmes for PMETs will focus on enhancing their career mobility by boosting their contacts and skills, through professional networking sessions and workshops. For women returning to work, participants will be guided over three steps (Step In, Step Up & Step Out) to enhance their career mobility by assisting them to develop new skills and competencies.

Professional Development

In the area of professional development, MUIS and MENDAKI SENSE have been collaborating in skills development of local asatizah, based on the Asatizah Career & Competency Framework, whilst leveraging on SSG sector-based skills frameworks.

SENSE career advisors also play a vital role to enhance employability of job seekers. They adopt the ACE IT! approach when providing career and training guidance to job seekers, which includes assessment of individual needs, creating awareness of available assistance, establishing career and training pathways, implementation of training plans, job placement, and tracking of progress.

Moreover, SENSE career advisors assist individuals from various profiles (Rank-and-file, Seniors, and Mid-Career switchers) to explore new sectors for career switch or gain information on training opportunities to further their careers. Since its launch in October 2019, ACE IT! has been deployed for 3,000 job seekers and successfully matched 620 job seekers to jobs in various sectors.