SINGAPORE — Young professionals in the infocomm and media industries may soon be able to acquire new skills and find new job opportunities in a faster and targeted manner through an online learning portal. This is one of the ideas proposed by the Infocomm Media Masterplan Steering Committee.
Through this platform, individuals who want to score an interview with a potential employer who is hiring but lack certain skills can enrol in the portal’s online course modules, which are developed in partnership with the employer. Once an individual receives his certification for the course, he is guaranteed an interview with the employer.
Employers can also benefit as they can use this platform to enlarge their pool of candidates or send existing staff for upgrading.
Currently, recruitment of Infocomm and Media (ICM) professionals are done through traditional processes, where resumes are reviewed, following which a small group of people are selected and trained. But this may result in a high turnover due to a lack of job fit, the committee noted.
With an online portal, job candidates are more prepared and aware of the job requirements after certification, so it improves hiring success and reduce manpower acquisition costs, said the committee.
The committee hopes that by facilitating an “open and accelerated” learning opportunity, they can address the great demand for ICM talent and develop a steady supply of skilled professionals with good career prospects.
“We should really try to explore more ways of finding the talent that companies need,” said Mr Aubeck Kam, a member of the committee and the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Communications and Information. “You really want to use ICM as a way to help you filter out and identify the people who potentially are able to make a contribution in terms of what they can offer to your company.”
Other plans include creating more on-the-job training through attachments to technology companies or research and development centres, and an integrated degree programme for diploma graduates working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The degree could be part-time, shorter, and integrated with on-the-job projects which can also qualify for credits in the programme.
source: todayonline.com
