You always say want to work overseas, right? Now got chance liao!

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Hello, excuse me. I am not talking about the 空姐 (air stewardess) that扮美美 (dress up nice nice) and fly here and there for work one ah. Although that’s my dream also la but too bad not 天生丽质 (born beauty). But then that does not stop me from wanting to go overseas for work leh.  I mean I love Singapore la, so safe, public transport so convenient, but sometimes keep work here long liao like abit sian hor. I want to try different things, work at different places and get to experience different things when I still considered *ahem* young ma.

Then yesterday I heard this news that got me 小 (a little) excited.

National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) is launching a pilot programme that will provide an additional opportunity for job seeker who aspire to work overseas.

JSC_SNEF_NTUC MOU

So just yesterday, NTUC and SNEF signed this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for employers and job seekers to be on the same page. The signing of the MOU will strengthen the NTUC Job Security Council (JSC) ecosystem to help workers get better wages, job prospects and welfare in general. And this pilot programme for opportunity to work overseas was one of the benefits from this NTUC-SNEF partnership.

Eh wait, what is this NTUC JSC?

You know when 2020 was the height of COVID-19, then some companies were not doing so well, and many workers were retrenched? Just nice, the JSC was announced in February 2020 by NTUC, to minimize impacts of retrenchment by helping workers find good jobs quickly. They aim to create this ecosystem of hiring and releasing employers, to shorten the period workers remain unemployed.

NTUC’s e2i role in this is an ecosystem manager or like a 媒婆 (matchmaker) between employers and workers, sometimes host networking events and recruitment drives to link both parties up. Like 联谊 (matchmaking) right! Of course, there is more to that than what they do, go to their website if you want to find out more. NTUC e2i possesses collective information on releasing and hiring jobs which enables them to job-match workers more efficiently.

You remember that time lockdown, no one can fly anywhere, right? Then those 空姐 how? Go healthcare sector help la! Eh in case you don’t know, healthcare sector needs a lot of customer service one, not easy hor, and these 空姐 very good at it. If you got sit SIA before you sure know. When they couldn’t fly that time, NTUC JSC helped to ‘Lift and Place’ them into adjacent industries and job roles, so they don’t 手停口停 (remain unemployed without income).

From then until August 2022, NTUC JSC has already matched about 60,000 workers to new jobs. Power sia!

Then still sign the MOU with SNEF for what?

Basically, SNEF represents the interest of employers in the national tripartite relationship and NTUC represents workers in general. NTUC e2i is the matchmaker between employers and workers.

Sign the MOU liao means NTUC e2i under the NTUC JSC initiative can now leverage SNEF’s ecosystem of employers, services, and grants to match job-ready workers to employer partners more efficiently. Win for workers as more chance for job seekers to get good jobs and also win for employers as they are now in a better place to meet their manpower needs with employment facilitation support.

Now that we are less affected by COVID-19 already, NTUC JSC will look beyond job matching between individual firms during retrenchment. By partnering SNEF, NTUC JSC can now shift towards building up capabilities towards higher productivity to match jobs across entire industries pre-emptively. And as NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng aka 老大 (boss man) of NTUC says, the strengthened JSC that partners SNEF is needed to help workers in Singapore navigate “the looming shadows of a recession and great uncertainties in the geo-economic spheres”.

Here are some ways companies can benefit from this partnership:

ntuc jsc

There is the Company Training Committee (CTC) grant, Support for Job Redesign under Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG-JR), Career Conversion Programme (CCP) and so many more things. Please click here if you want to know more, I kan cheong (in a hurry) want to go to the exciting part liao.

More opportunities to work overseas!

Now comes the exciting part! Through the partnership of NTUC and SNEF, the enhanced NTUC JSC can work with a wider network of SNEF-member companies for job placements. Many of these partner companies have overseas offices or are looking to expand their business abroad.

Remember I mentioned about CCP earlier? The e2i has already engaged some 4,000 firms under the JSC and will also ramp up its engagement with the over 3,300 SNEF members, to encourage them to transform their business with existing grants, as well as collaborate to get more mid-career workers on board CCPs offered by SNEF and e2i.

Acc Pro (Singapore), a SNEF member and tech consultancy firm which specializes in cloud accounting, is one such partner company that looks forward to increase uptake under the CCP. Their group business development director, Victor Goh shared how the firm would want to double their existing head count to support their expansion into Britain and South-east Asia but mentioned the difficulties faced when hiring accountants because even when some have accounting technical skills, they are not technology savvy. With the CCP, more of such potential workers could undergo training for their skills to better suit what required for the job. More of these jobs means more overseas job openings. Wah, can learn new things and still get the opportunity to work overseas, I also want sia!

The SNEF Vice-President also confirmed this during the MOU signing yesterday, saying that feedback from SNEF members also suggest that employers are keen to work with Singaporeans who can take on global and regional roles as well as to help local companies internationalize and that SNEF will continue its discussions with tripartite partners and employers to better support our local PMEs to further advance their careers.

So reassuring hor. Got chance to go overseas, go already still can broaden and enrich our experiences, learn to be more versatile and adaptable. And say real hor, look very satki (impressive) on the resume also la. Why don’t want? Companies win, we also win.

They haven’t announced when the pilot programme is going to start yet. But for now, JSC is already working to bring onboard a small number of companies to pilot this since a lot of companies and young Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) have already expressed their interest for this through the NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce. So now, we patiently wait can?

In the meantime, if you have any concerns or aspirations for your work hor, you can always engage in the #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations. Basically, it is a year-long engagement exercise by NTUC to hear the views of workers across different ages and sector. Since they invite you liao, go and share la!


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If you’d like to contribute your story to us, drop us an email at editors@sureboh.sg and we’ll review it. We read each submission that comes to us within two weeks of receiving it.

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