Introduction
1. Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here today to launch the 2025 Skills Demand for the Future Economy Report, or in short, the Skills Report.
2. We are joined today by key partners of the SkillsFuture ecosystem, including training providers, trade associations, industry and union members. Many of you have contributed generously to the Skills Report, sharing the commitment we have towards Singapore's workforce development.
3. Since its launch in 2021, this report has provided key jobs and skills insights for individuals, companies and training providers, strengthening the skills demand and supply coordination.
- In a recent World Economic Forum report, six in 10 local firms that were polled expressed concern about skills gaps hindering their business transformation. 97% of our companies plan to prioritise upskilling as their key workforce strategy, compared to 85% globally.
- Building on this high skills consciousness, this Report seeks to help companies to be clearer about their skills needs. This could in turn give employees greater confidence and clearer direction in pursuing learning and upskilling. Training providers can also better aggregate and respond to learning demand from consumers, with the right skills and content. All in all, everyone can benefit from this skills report.
What’s new in the Skills Report
4. In the fourth edition of this Skills Report, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) continues to focus on the in-demand skills in the three growth economies – the Care, the Green and the Digital economies.
- There are some skills that will continue to remain in high demand, such as client communications and customer experience management for the care and digital economies respectively.
- And some skills are likely to grow in demand and become more transferable across different job roles in 2025 and beyond. These include facilities management and incident management for the green and digital economies respectively.
5. The Skills Report this year also has a special feature on the creative industries, focusing on the skills and tools required by about 150,000 creative professionals in Singapore working directly in the creative sector and also in non-creative sectors. Indeed, creativity skills are needed and can be transferrable across all jobs.
- A key question explored is the impact of artificial intelligence on creative industries. While GenAI tools can support creative work, it is also important to guide ethical use of these tools.
- This Report also creates awareness of creative skills that non-creative professionals will increasingly need and how they can tap on GenAI and many of these new tools for their creative work.
6. To enable more interactive and collaborative use of the jobs and skills insights and data gathered, I am pleased to announce the launch of the Jobs-Skills Portal.
- This portal is jointly developed by SSG and GovTech, and will serve as a one-stop centralised platform for individuals and companies to access jobs-skills insights, resources and tools.
- In this Skills Report edition, we are making available dashboards that can serve as planning tools for individuals to assess their career mobility, and also to explore skills pathways to bridge their skills to access those jobs that they are keen on.
- Companies can also monitor how skills and tools required by jobs have evolved over time, which can inform their organisational and manpower planning. HR professionals will also find these information useful to guide the company's strategy on manpower and training growth.
7. We welcome feedback from individuals and companies on the usefulness of these dashboards and how they could be refined. More jobs and skills planning tools will be made available progressively this year.
Making use of the Skills Report
8. The Skills Report has received good reviews internationally thus far. For example, leading think-tanks on labour market research have commended the Report as an innovative skills development blueprint. While that lends strong endorsement to the report and its insights, I would say that the greater success is when local companies and individuals use the Skills Report for their transformation and upskilling. Converting what is in the skills report into action to benefit local companies and individuals, is what we really hope to see.
9. One partner who benefited from the jobs and skills insights is the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP), Singapore's only register of volunteer bone marrow donors. It identified skills gaps and created an in-house competency framework, using the insights on emerging skills needs in the care and digital economies. The insights enabled employees in this company to better assess their training needs and chart their upskilling journey.
10. Another example is Avid Adventures, a company who sees the importance of upskilling its own staff, after attending a Skills Accelerator Programme. To help students and young professionals navigate their career pathways, Avid Adventures designed a digital career simulation game, using insights from this Skills Report. This is an encouraging example of how the private sector can make use of the report, not only to upskill its workforce, but also do good for a wider group of people out there.
11. More stories of how individuals and companies have used and benefited from the Skills Report can be found in this edition. We have captured these stories to encourage the translation of insights into action.
Conclusion
12. In conclusion, I am proud to launch this year's edition of the Skills Report as a key jobs and skills resource for local companies, training providers and individuals. I am confident that it will be valuable to our enterprises, and workers alike.
13. I thank all our partners who have contributed to the rich insights in this Report, and I urge companies and individuals to make good use of the data, and convert it into action. What is key is that collectively, we harness the power of data to change, be better, and be more competitive, whether you are running a business or you are an individual looking to upskill and power your own career. Together, we can develop a more adaptive workforce that will thrive in our next phase of growth in Singapore.
14. Thank you.