Upskilling To Seize New Opportunities Is Vital In The Age Of Disruption
You’ve clocked in your hours at your current job and are thinking of seeking new opportunities in up-and-coming sectors for exposure and growth.
But before taking that next step, you need to assess the job market and economy first – in the ‘age of disruption’ as companies rapidly transform, different capabilities are rising in value.
Skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and resilience are becoming increasingly important, as waves of technological advancements sweep through work and daily life.
To keep up with the changes, you’d need a resource like the new Skills Demand for the Future Economy report that tells you exactly what to zoom in on.
Image courtesy of SkillsFuture Singapore
Highlighting three key economic growth areas, the report will equip you with all the knowledge you’ll need to plan the next step in your career.
That being said, a skills overhaul is not what this is about. Instead, many of these skills can complement your existing repertoire – you’ll simply be keeping yourself updated the same way you’d update your smartphone’s OS.
Upskill & reskill to seize new opportunities
While we’ve had to adapt to new working conditions over the past two years, the pandemic has not been the only factor for change — the world had been subtly transforming even before, and Covid-19 only accelerated the progress.
If you’ve been struggling to get used to online meetings, you might want to start getting a hang of them now, because even more tech will be infiltrating your work life.
According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs 2020 report, rapid tech advancements are one of three observations you should be aware of:
- The pace of technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas
- The window of opportunity to reskill and upskill workers has become shorter in the newly constructed labour market
- Skills gaps continue to be high as in-demand skills across jobs change in the next few years
Therefore, the need to upskill and reskill is becoming all the more urgent, so you can catch that chance to grow while you still can.
Of course, trying to attain all the skills isn’t possible. This is why you should turn to the SkillsFuture Singapore report to focus your attention on three areas of the economy that have emerged as the pillars that will drive Singapore’s growth over the next one to three years:
- Digital Economy
- Green Economy
- Care Economy
As sectors that hold a lot of promise, you’ll be able to find a myriad of exciting opportunities for jobs and skills in the future.
Digital Economy
A trend that many of us must have noticed throughout the pandemic is that many areas of business operation have had to embrace digitalisation.
With the rate of adoption showing no signs of abating, it’s clear that the move towards a Digital Economy is here to stay.
In fact, all of Singapore’s key sectors contain job roles that require digital skills.
If you think of yourself as a tech noob, don’t fret – “Tech-Lite” roles make up the majority of job opportunities, and you don’t have to be a tech expert to qualify.
Comprising positions like data analysts, customer insights specialists, and digital marketing analysts, tech-lite roles focus more on deploying digital skills to perform work functions.
Some of the top priority skill clusters in the Digital Economy include:
- Technology Application
- Data Analysis/Analytics
- Market Research/Trends
These three skill clusters combined will qualify you for more than 700 – or over two-thirds – of jobs in the Digital Economy.
Those who have a greater flair for the ones and zeroes may opt for “Tech-Heavy” roles where technology is used to create solutions and lead digital transformation.
They require a high level of technical competence and include jobs like software engineers, data scientists, and AI engineers.
Priority skills, such as Technology Development, Data Engineering, and Internet of Things Management, may be more challenging to pick up, but they’ll qualify you for half of the “Tech-Heavy” job roles that currently exist.
Green Economy
As discussions about sustainability come to the fore, more businesses are reflecting on how to adopt greener practices.
The focus is evident in efforts such as The Singapore Green Plan 2030 and the “30 by 30” vision to locally produce 30% of Singapore’s food consumption needs by 2030.
This shift creates new ways of working and new jobs, as well as new skills that are needed for existing positions.
Green skills are now needed in more than 450 positions, including:
- agri-technologist/urban farmer
- environment, health & safety manager
- facility/building officer/technician
- sustainability manager
These positions can be found across 17 sectors, such as:
- built environment
- financial services
- food production
- energy & power
For a company to become greener, it may have to review its current frameworks.
So it’s not surprising that the top priority skills cluster in the Green Economy is Green Process Design, where one has to formulate green decisions almost from scratch.
The top 3 priority skills clusters that can unlock multiple job opportunities in the Green Economy are:
- Green Process Design
- Carbon Footprint Management
- Environmental Management System Framework/ Policy
Aside from the above, skills that are more ‘traditionally’ associated with the Green Economy, such as Waste Management, continue to be relevant. After all, waste is at the heart of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Care Economy
With or without Covid-19, the demand for skills in sectors like healthcare, community care, and education has been progressively increasing, proving just how vital the Care Economy is.
In fact, it is one of the fastest-expanding economic areas globally, with a World Economic Forum report suggesting that almost 40% of job openings in emerging professions will be in the Care Economy this year.
Thanks to technological advancements and community partnerships across disciplines, new roles and skills have emerged in the Care Economy.
Besides traditional roles like nurses, preschool teachers, and occupational therapists, other roles to consider include:
- courseware developer
- learning support executive
- programme manager
- senior/research associate
If you’re a people person who thrives on personal interactions with others, the Care Economy may just be the right fit for you.
The top 3 priority skills flagged by the Skills Demand for the Future Economy report are:
- conduct & ethics
- stakeholder management
- inclusive practices
At least two-thirds of roles in the Care Economy require these skills, and it’s clear why.
Many of the priority skills in the care economy are highly transferable, as they are in demand by a wide range of sectors.
Critical core skills useful across all jobs
On top of the technical skills we’ve mentioned thus far, all jobs require soft skills which have aptly been termed Critical Core Skills.
The set of 16 skills are transferable across any role you may be in and are fast gaining emphasis in the future of work.
The 3 broad categories encompassing these skills are:
- thinking critically
- interacting with others
- staying relevant
These skills ensure continuous personal development – in short – by helping you build on more skills. Eventually, once you’re able to largely cover the above 3 skill areas, you’ll be well set up for nearly any job you apply for.
Chart your skills development journey for career growth
Understanding the key priority skills above will keep you at the front of the pack in the next 3 years, but we all know learning, unlearning, and relearning will be a cycle we have to accept for the future of work.
Here are 5 tips that you should continually practise to keep developing your skills:
- Take account of your existing skills stock
- Initiate conversations with your manager/ SkillsFuture Skills Ambassador on your career-learning plan
- Sign up for courses that match your skills needs
- Put those new skills to use at work
- Keep track of emerging trends in your sector
To find out more about the most suitable priority skills to kickstart your career growth, do check out the Skills Demand for the Future Economy report for some valuable insight.
Ride the pandemic to greater heights
Though you may have heard the saying “change is the only constant” one too many times, there’s some truth to it as we witness the world around us always evolving.
The same goes for our skills too, as we try to adapt to these changes by upgrading ourselves in order to keep up with everyone else.
In turbulent times like these, learning a new skill might just be the best way to show that you’re still fighting and determined to come out stronger on the other side.
This post was brought to you in collaboration with SkillsFuture Singapore.
Featured image adapted from JurongHealth Campus on Facebook, Ben Rosett on Unsplash & Edible Garden City on Facebook.
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