Minister of State for Communications and Information, Mr. Chee Hong Tat announced on March 6, measures to help media professionals in Singapore deepen core skills through necessary support systems.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) and SkillsFuture Singapore will jointly develop a skills framework for media professionals that will serve as a common reference for job-seekers, professionals and employers.

The framework will contain information on current and emerging skills for different occupational levels, as well as career progression pathways for different media-related jobs. Employers can also use the framework to design talent development plans, so as to better attract and retain crucial talents.

Further, the government assures to protect media freelancers to support of the Singapore economy. IMDA and NTUC will develop a tripartite standard for the procurement of services from media freelancers by 2017. The standard will provide a list of good employment practices, such as having written contracts that clearly spell out payment terms, intellectual property rights, and how to handle disputes.

Together with the Singapore Mediation Centre, IMDA will also provide subsidised mediation services to resolve disputes between media companies and freelancers on contractual matters, including late payment and non-payment.

The Government will require media companies to adopt good industry practices, if they want to qualify for government grants and Public Service Broadcast (PSB) funding. IMDA will take action against companies that wrongfully delay or withhold payment to their staff and freelancers.

See: SkillsFuture Plans to Reach Out to More Singaporeans This Year

Also a Content Development Fund for PSB content will be established by IMDA and Mediacorp to encourage media professionals to experiment with new content formats, including the use of new technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality.

“IMDA will partner Mediacorp to build a pipeline of young creative talent for the media industry,” said Mr Chee to Channel News Asia. “Through new scholarship and apprenticeship programmes, as well as collaborations with schools, we want to discover young talent and groom them early in media and content production. This includes a programme to develop young producers to create content targeted at youths.”

Beginning this year, Mediacorp will also increase the amount of outsourcing to independent production houses. Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), will also continue to develop a business-friendly and pro-growth environment for Singapore media companies to innovate and experiment with new ideas.

One such initiative being Mediapreneur, an incubation programme by Mediacorp that supports media start-ups through seed funding, mentoring, networking and marketing opportunities through Mediacorp’s platforms.

With several of the media start-ups already partnering business units in Mediacorp to develop interesting concepts, Mr. Chee expects some of the ideas from start-up founders to be adopted by media companies to produce entertaining content and raise the level of enjoyment for its viewers.

Also read: Targeting More Than 400 Placements under the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme in 2017