WHEN NTUC JobLink moves into its new home at One Marina Boulevard, it will boast a new feature that can help workers even more: A new and better-equipped job centre.
With better facilities and resources to help match job seekers to suitable jobs, this new centre will also have an expanded capability in job counselling and related services for those who require employment assistance.
The centre is a joint venture between NTUC JobLink and the Workforce Development Authority (WDA) which aims to place more jobs for the unemployed, said NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How.
With the economy expected to do better, Mr Heng wants to capitalise on the jobs that will be available. And NTUC, he said, will pull out all stops to help the unemployed get these jobs.
“I want to make sure that as many unemployed Singaporeans as possible get to board this ship of opportunity before it sails off. If they miss this chance, it will be very hard to get on again,” he explained.
Last year, NTUC JobLink successfully placed 1,500 workers into jobs, a 50 per cent increase over the year before.
But Mr Heng has greater plans for this year. “For 2004, I expect at least 1,800 placements from the job centre alone. It goes beyond the direct efforts of JobLink,” he said.
JobLink’s goal is part of the labour movement’s overall target of placing 4,000 job seekers this year. To achieve this, it intends to go on what Mr Heng calls a multi-pronged approach, to tap every avenue and network to fit Singaporeans into jobs.
First, JobLink till tap on its own capability to directly place job-seekers. Given its impressive track record, additional resources that will come from the new centre and the improving economy, it is confident that it will be able to place more workers into jobs this year.
On another front, it will give job seekers added confidence and know-how in their hunt for jobs by offering useful advice and courses like the Workskills Training Programme. With greater expertise and resources in job counselling, it will increase job seekers’ ability to seize job opportunities even more, noted Mr Heng.
At the same time, JobLink will also work with various partners, with all parties tapping into each other’s networks to speed up job placement. Citing the union network as one example, Mr Heng noted that unions and JobLink are already working together to deal with retrenchments and place workers who have been laid off.
That network, as well as links with other partners outside the union movement, will be used even more intensively as JobLink’s search for vacancies.
On top of all this, labour MPs have also spearheaded job redesign initiatives, covering the electronics, shipbuilding, healthcare, hotel, textile, cleaning and horticulture sectors. By improving productivity and pay, increasing scope for flexi-work, overcoming practical hurdles in the recruitment process and other areas, the labour movement as a whole has helped to open up more job chances for Singaporeans. It is also looking to the aerospace and transport sectors as they show promise, said Mr. Heng.
But while NTUC will go all out to help Singaporean job seekers, Mr Heng reminded workers that they are the final link.
“At the end of the day, I can only build a bridge. It is for the job seeker to cross that bridge and take the job,” he said. Urging Singaporeans not to think that the old days of jobs chasing after applicants are back, he warned them that the jobs will go to someone else if they hesitated.
He said: “Seize the moment, grab the job offer and make a better future for yourself and your family.
