The tech industry gets serious about matching workers and their skills to the right jobs.
By Ben Tan
Singapore’s infocomm media (ICM) sector is booming. According to the IMDA Annual Survey on Infocomm Media Manpower 2016, the demand for infocomm professionals is projected to grow by another 42,000 over the next 3 years. Having the right skill sets can help working professionals gain a strong foothold in this hot and rising industry.
Enter talentguru, an ICM career development platform aimed at helping workers skill up. Powered by data science, the platform was launched on 20 July by the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), with support from SPRING Singapore, IMDA and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).
“There are many exciting job opportunities in [the ICM] sector, ranging from deep technical roles, such as data scientists and cybersecurity forensic analysts, to business-strategy roles like chief digital officers and enterprise architects,” said Mr Tan Kiat How, Chief Executive, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
talentguru helps individuals identify their skill gaps and points them to training opportunities for the skills that the jobs demand. In short, if you are trying to get ahead in the ICM industry, talentguru is here to help. Here are four ways talentguru can make a difference.
1) Fine-tuning your skills for the ICM career you want. It is not always clear what exactly we need to do to get the job we want. Using a proprietary job fit system, talentguru allows you to assess whether you have the requisite skills for a particular position. If it turns out that you don’t, you can easily enrol in online courses, offered by partners such as Coursera and Udemy, to bridge any skills gap. talentguru’s career pathway mapping tool also allows you to better understand how particular choices might affect your long-term career prospects.
2) Offering one-stop, holistic certification of your talent (in development). Sometimes employers overlook quality candidates because of poorly written résumés, or lack of experience. talentguru helps employers focus on candidates’ skills instead. Shortlisted candidates complete an online test on talentguru that assesses and validates their skills. This streamlines the recruitment process, allowing for a more holistic candidate selection as it takes into account existing skill sets, industry experience and academic qualifications.
3) Providing access to mentorships. An internship alone isn’t enough; we all need mentors to nurture us. talentguru has your back. In its structured internship programme, talentguru will match you with quality internships and accompanying SME mentors. The mentors will undergo mentorship workshops, to be equipped with the necessary leadership skills to guide you through your internship experience. talentguru will also be curating quality internship projects to ensure that you gain the skills you need to be better prepared to succeed in the ICM industry.
4) Connecting you to a rich, vibrant community. Developing your career doesn’t have to be a lonely experience. talentguru offers a closely-knit ICM community both online and offline through events such as career fairs, networking sessions and industry talks. “talentguru will drive industry-wide cooperation by bridging technologists, entrepreneurs, multinationals and Singapore companies with institutes of higher learning and government agencies to uncover new science, business and technology talents,” said Benjamin Mah, Co-Chairman SiTF Talent & Capabilities Committee.
Over the next three years, talentguru seeks to facilitate 3,000 job placements and 1,000 internship placements. It also hopes to train 300 internship mentors in SMEs. “talentguru is a platform where Singaporeans interested in joining the sector can identify their training needs, get matched to a suitable job and be part of a vibrant ecosystem,” said Gilbert Tan, CEO, e2i.
Kickstart your ICM career now at talentguru.org
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