Singapore studying ways to better support workers through career transitions: Desmond Choo

追加: 2026-05-31

[00:00:01]Singapore's preparing workers for a future of more frequent career transitions as artificial intelligence, automation, and global uncertainty reshape jobs. The government is looking at how it can provide earlier support and mitigate a lost income during career switches. CNA's Ivy Chalk and Sabrina speak to ESR committee co-chair Desmond Chu.

[00:00:25]As jobs and industries evolve at a faster pace, workers are increasingly being asked to adapt, the economic strategy review committee is studying how Singapore can better support Singaporeans through these transitions.

[00:00:40]>> Who identifies the worker early enough?

[00:00:42]Is it the employer or the government or the union or the worker themselves as well?

[00:00:48]>> I think that's a very good question. It goes back to our tripartite system today. We have our employers who obviously is in the market. They know what's happening. We also have our government agency with the macro data.

[00:01:01]We also have our unions who are very in touch with the workers on what they need, what they aspire to, we identifying you early and then we're opening up the opportunities to help them to make that transition because rather than them dropping off the workforce and bouncing back. We want to catch you before you even fall so that you enter another growth space again.

[00:01:23]>> The committee says one way to do that is through career bridges which aims to connect workers in vulnerable sectors to industries with stronger long-term demand. Could you maybe bring us through what makes these career bridges different and how do we know that you know this bridge leads to a real job not just another course or training? We have growing and quite frankly resilient uh industries. For example, healthcare is doing very well and you'll continue to do well because we're just getting older. So how do we then move somebody from a threatened disrupted industry or occupations into one that are more resilient and we want to target those that are most disrupted. So say for example you can come from traditional printing machine operators maybe even a hand picker in a grocery setup on a um logistics company and we need to make the transition for you. Can you then apply your skill sets say for example in healthcare setting and we think that there are a lot of skill sets that they already have today maybe not the 100% but 50 60%. How can we handhold you through that process to get into those jobs? We need to move into that so that our people have more choices. So, it's an involved process. It's going to take time, but we're going to go sector by sector, industry by industry, occupation by occupation. And I think this is where we need to be because if we don't involve oursel that deeply, then our workers cannot get that confidence to make the transition. A big part of the ASR is also talking about reviewing schemes and studying new approaches to support and help our PMEs. So what changes are needed to reduce income loss when workers are forced to move between jobs or between sectors?

[00:03:20]>> Building on that u the bounce back uh for workers which is that the jobseker support schemes. I think we need to broaden the level of support and deepen it so that our workers have the confidence that as I transit to different things I will not be left alone. I think the next major move in terms of worker support how do we ease that very sharp cleiff effect. So I think that from a grand policy support perspective we can smoothen that so that we help them to cope with that change.

[00:03:52]How do you think we can also protect workers without making firms afraid to restructure openly?

[00:03:58]>> It's always quite uh tough. Uh we know that companies don't restructure sometimes because they want to care for their workers because they've been with their workers for so long. But some restructure because they have no choice to do that. And then we have the workers who really at the you know at the short end of the stick. I think we're not coming from zero. We're working from a strong tripartite system and tripartite system has a strong trust level in it.

[00:04:26]Meaning that no company will actually go into such things without exploring other opportunities and the unions will not uh stop all these restructuring that are good thoughtful unnecessarily. They will support the process um caring for the dignity of the workers. So build upon that foundation exchange information earlier including things like we recommending earlier notification that can help agencies to come in with the support much earlier. For example, today we are having this conversation in E2I but if I can have my E2I people in there earlier on the company shop floor and work with the workers, it's going to take a lot of anxiety off the system.

[00:05:08]How would you make the case to an older worker um you know when their company is going through such restructuring that their momentary pain will actually lead to a better opportunity for them in the future. One of them was uh Jansen. Um they were in traditional uh you know label printer now got QR code you go online what is the value of printing you know so but they made that transition they made a transition into doing higher level higher quality printing for security sector >> met tech sector um where you have much higher value uh goods being produced.

[00:05:45]When you have that, the workers get a chance to earn better pay, more secure in their job.

[00:05:50]>> What should a young Singaporean entering the workforce today be able to share about their career 10 or even 20 years from now?

[00:05:59]>> Are there things I need to change? Yes, I need to be nimble and adaptable knowing that whatever they learned in school, I need to enhance it very quickly when I come out. But at the end, I think we are going to put Singapore in a better state because an AI empowered economy um is going to take us much further than an economy that doesn't have AI power empowering. So, embrace it, you know, chase that um that bright future and we will walk along that journey with you. And if you do need to change and you do drop off that path, um that helping hand will be there for