Even before the pandemic, individuals and employers in Asia are increasingly out of sync. There’s a growing mismatch between skills and jobs.
An NTUC LearningHub Employer Skills Survey 2021 survey of over 200 Singapore business leaders across six industry clusters found insights about coveted skills that have kept businesses viable since the pandemic broke out in 2020.
During the disruption of the pandemic, enterprises have sought modes of upskilling and reskilling to help their teams learn new skills and develop stronger resilience.
Skills training is the priority, yet more than half of Singapore employers lack adequate in-house capabilities to assess their employees’ skills gaps.
In order to carry out effective competency skills mapping and training needs analysis, external help in creating workforce development strategies are in demand.
“We observed that as much as companies are investing time and resources in training and upskilling their workforce, many still require help in identifying skills gaps to perform the job well,” said Jenaline Low, NTUC LHUB’s director of Institute of Business Excellence and Healthcare Academy.
“By embarking on a skills competency mapping or training needs analysis exercise, they could close these gaps more effectively.”
Understanding your business needs
The survey also revealed that as businesses re-assess the key competencies their business requires, employers have to be quick to strategically restructure their workforce through job enlargement and enhancement.
The responsibility is also on employees to take on a lifelong learning mindset to keep up with their industry and take opportunities in skills upgrading to stay relevant.
Analyzing training needs has become more crucial as organizations pivot business models to find new revenue streams to survive.
Employers are focused on upskilling their workers in adaptive technology and technical skills.
Top 10 adaptive skills
Effective communication has emerged at the top of the most coveted adaptive skills among employers in Singapore today.
- Effective communication
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Negotiation and influencing
- Innovation
- Service excellence
- Conflict management
- Creativity
- Design thinking
- LEAN Principles
Top 10 digital skills
Half of all employers surveyed identified digital marketing as the top in-demand skill in Singapore today.
- Digital marketing
- Data analysis
- Project management
- Basic IT support
- Data-driven decision making
- Web/app design and development
- Cybersecurity
- Governance, risk management, and personal data protection
- AI/Machine Learning
- Robotic process automation
Getting L&D help
For the past year, online learning for training and development is answering the call for the digital transformation of industries.
Training providers that offer companies learning and development (L&D) advisory services to address the skills needs of their workforce is one approach.
“Working hand in hand with companies, we help them to better align employees’ skills to capture business opportunities, including job redesign for job scope expansion,” said NTUC’s Low.
In addition, a collaborative effort by the Edutech Alliances for Action resulted in an online skills gap analysis solution.
Known as ZilLearn Skills, the platform allows individuals to take control of their learning paths and discover target jobs they may not have considered before.
