Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority says the demand for individuals with specialized tech talent is not limited to the tech sector.
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Singapore has not been immune to the layoffs that have hit the global tech industry since 2022.
Carousel online marketplace 10% reduction of total staff December of last year, and Shopee tells The Straits Times it has started its third round of layoffs previous November.
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But despite the downsizing, Singapore is still investing heavily in tech skills. Efforts to recruit and train tech talent – in both the tech and non-tech sectors of the country – continue to be strong.
Singapore’s OCBC, DBS and UOB banks each develop programs to train technology staff and prepare students for the tech industry. For its part, OCBC has announced plans to hire 1,500 tech employees over the next three years by 2022.
And STLogistics announced last year that it would invest S$1.7 million ($1.2 million) to incentivize employees to acquire digital skills such as software robotics. Singapore telecommunications company M1 has launched a program to equip university students with skills such as supporting cloud infrastructure, the company said on its website.
The need for those skills isn’t going away anytime soon — in tech and beyond.
Demand for high-tech jobs
Tech jobs have become increasingly popular in recent years.
By 2022, nearly 7 out of 10 vacancies in the information and communication sector will be new positions. Report of the Ministry of Manpower showed to be the highest of all sectors for the third consecutive year.
Across vacancies, tech talent such as software developers and application managers continues to be in high demand, the report added.
That level of demand is expected to remain as the economy digitizes, said Terence Chia, cluster manager at Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
“This is a consequence of technology companies anchoring and developing higher value technology developments and corporate functions here,” he said.
On top of that, the demand for individuals in “specialized technology areas” such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity is not limited to the tech sector, Chia told CNBC. Such tech workers are needed in many industries, such as finance, manufacturing, logistics and professional services, he said.
Technology ‘powering all the big banks’
Donald MacDonald, head of data at OCBC, said that in finance, technology is the engine that “powers all the big banks”.
“We want everyone in the bank… to have at least a basic knowledge of data,” he said.
He said OCBC has designed a program that equips employees with basic data skills and teaches them how to use data in their work.
According to MacDonald, the bank uses data to understand its customer profile and personalize each customer’s experience.
Data also helps reduce risk — OCBC scans every transaction for fraud and uses algorithms to figure out “to whom and… how much,” he said.
MacDonald says another data analytics program trains employees in departments like finance and risk management. It has trained about 400 employees in advanced data analysis skills such as Python, which MacDonald says will help them “go further” using Excel and other simple tools.
“I see Singapore being established [itself] as a sort of regional hub for AI and deep tech,” MacDonald said.
Specialized technology skills
IMDA’s plans are broader: It trained more Chia claims to have recruited more than 15,000 Singaporeans and placed them in specialized tech jobs. He added that the jobs span a variety of industries, including financial services, wholesale and retail trade as well as education.
Those jobs often have steep learning curves, but Chia said program participants receive “on-the-job training and classroom learning” to acquire specialized skills.
One of IMDA’s programs, he said, puts non-tech professionals through an “in-depth, bootcamp-style experience” that helps them grow into tech professionals.
Higher education is no exception. Chia said “many leading companies” support IMDA’s joint initiative with the Ministry of Education to train and create job opportunities for technology students in vocational institutes.
“There continue to be many opportunities in the digital economy for Singaporeans,” Chia said.
globally, Tech companies announced that they have cut 102,391 jobs year-to-date, the value of tech talent hasn’t diminished in Singapore.
