Career Pathways: 2017

An excerpt from Education Minister, Ong Ye Kung's speech that workers will need to acquire new skills and interests as well adopt fresh attitudes in this age of machines.

With continually shifting workforces, there will be many new pressures on HR professionals. You’ll be expected to have diverse high-quality resources at your fingertips ready for deployment, the ability to deliver insights that have demonstrated impact, produce faster returns from training, demonstrate value and do so at a lower cost.

"...top skills that finance and accounting professionals think they need to be equipped with in 10 years' time are strategic thinking, business acumen, leadership, communication and influencing, and analysis and advisory. Technology skills, such as information technology and digital skills, and information management skills (such as statistical analysis and data mining), are also gaining prominence..."

The study, Singapore Maritime Cluster Manpower Demand and Supply Study, identified digital literacy and data analytics, environmental engineering and green technologies, and soft skills such as communication and resource management as important core skills for the industry in the future

"To be on the shop floor, not just with other workers but with a robot running around, is something workers need to be familiar with - dos and don'ts, what to do when the robot malfunctions and so on"

"..do not just want a good test-taker with a string of qualifications. More importantly, these professionals need to take their knowledge gleaned off books and manuals to implement and execute strategies and actions..."

As technology is now changing the way work is done, there are fundamental shifts in the ways factories are structured. Lesser workers are required as manufacturers invest in automation and new technologies. Instead, workers are need to take on new and higher-value roles that involves working with more complex technology.

"Market experts have identified the following as key skill areas to have in the transformation to digital banking: big data and advanced analytics, agile processes, digital content, infrastructure management, mobile interfaces, risk management, payments and digital branding and marketing..."

"...What we need is the right mindset - to be proactive, dare to take risks and learn from our failures, and recognise that this is a continuous journey of upgrading..."

The world has experienced technological disruption before. In the Industrial Age of the 18th to the mid-20th centuries, mechanisation dramatically increased productivity and eroded age-old traditions of apprenticeship and craftsmanship. The Information Age saw the rise of the knowledge worker. Those with higher education and skills have thrived, while those without faced limits to their wage growth and social mobility.

"...Considering the big disruptive shifts brought about by global connectivity and smart machines, there is no question that the future employability landscape will change. This will demand an entirely new set of skills..."

Infocomm is 'high-priority sector' for Singapore's future economy, says Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say. Singaporeans now make up two-thirds of the infocommunications sector here, but more are needed to help Singapore become a Smart Nation.

"...banks and human resource experts said the rise of technology has led to an increase in demand of many new positions in the banking sector which did not previously exist, such as UX/UI designers, digital data analysts and app developers..."

Helping a firm grow its business by analysing data requires more than just maths and coding skills. It was a story about diapers and beer that sparked Mr Ken Wong's interest in data analytics, leading to a 19-year career as a data scientist.