Inaugural Report on Skills Demand for the Future Economy launched

The Skills Demand for the Future Economy report launched by Minister of Education, Chan Chun Sing on Dec 8 spotlighted three growth areas: Digital Economy, Green Economy and Care Economy. The report covers the top 20 clusters of priority skills for each area where such skills are required by the most number of job roles across the sectors under each area. National economic priorities together with employer demand from job postings and big data were used to determine priority skills. The report also highlighted job roles and courses linked to these opportunities. Experts’ views, along with machine learning and big data, were used to monitor job content and skills profile changes to stay on top of industry trends and share such insights directly with Singapore workers. According to the inaugural report released by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), unfamiliar jobs roles such as “sustainability manager, farm technologist, care manager” may become mainstream soon over the next 3 years.

The three growth areas

Digital Economy positions can be found across different sectors with the majority of such jobs being “tech-lite” roles that do not require specialised IT skills. These roles include customer insights specialists, digital marketing analysts, and data analysts with corresponding required skills in the areas of market research, data analysis, and the ability to adopt and apply new technology. For tech-heavy roles like software engineers, priority skills include data engineering and Internet of Things management.

Another area with increasing demand for skills is the Care Economy, spanning from healthcare, community care, social service, early childhood, general education to training and adult education. In fact, it is one of the fastest expanding economic sectors with “almost 40% of job openings in emerging professions globally … in the Care Economy by 2022”. Priority skills required include inclusive practices, stakeholder management as well as conduct, and ethics, required in two-thirds of care-related job positions.

The Green Economy refers to businesses that create new business functions by pivoting from environmentally harmful business practices to greener ones. Green jobs and skills are required in building and construction, energy and power sector, finance, and agri-tech. More than 450 job roles across 17 sectors require green skills and sectors can span from manufacturing and trade and connectivity to build environment and financial services. Skills required include green process design, carbon footprint management, and sustainability management. New jobs to harness sustainability solutions such as “new carbon technology, solar energy and green finance” will also be created.

Critical Core Soft Skills

In addition, the report also highlighted in-demand top soft skills sought after by employers i.e. interacting with others, critical thinking and being able to stay relevant by managing oneself effectively. The objective of the report is to raise awareness and inspire Singapore workers to equip themselves with these new skills for the future and the report is expected to be updated every year with fresh insights from different experts.

What do you think of these new growth areas? Are you interested in pursuing one of these roles in 2022?