On 17 April, a new high-tech national jobs portal MyCareersFuture.sg was launched to replace
the existing Jobs Bank to better
match jobseekers and employers.
According to Straits
Times, the MyCareersFuture.sg portal can prioritise search results
according to the relevance of a jobseeker's skills, number of applications
for the job posting, and filter results to show those under government support programmes,
among other key features.
The portal uses machine learning and text analysis to identify
skills requires for the job. It also measures the relevance of jobseekers'
skills in a percentage from zero to 100.
According to Singapore
Business Review, MyCareersFuture.sg offers job-to-skills matching
technology that matches jobseekers to jobs based on their skills, wherein
search results are based on skills match scores – the higher the score, the
better the match, and jobs with higher skills match scores will be shown first.
According to Channel
NewsAsia, an upcoming feature which will be implemented later this year
will allow employers to indicate core skills needed for each role.
The search option also has filters that cover the sector,
employment type, salary, and location. To broaden job seekers’ options, the
portal also makes recommendations for adjacent jobs, which are jobs that
jobseekers may not have considered but match their skills.
MyCareersFuture.sg is developed by Workforce Singapore (WSG)and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech).
While employers can still post jobs on the Jobs Bank, the listing will be
sychonised and shown on the new jobs portal. Jobs Banks will be eventually phased
out and only serve as a jobs repository.
Second Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo was quoted to say
that the portal is aimed at providing jobseekers a “smarter and faster way” to
find the right opportunities in the next phase of their careers.
“Today, some jobseekers send out many resumes, not knowing
whether there is a good job fit and whether they have the skills employers are
looking for. Employers also have a similar problem – they have to sieve through
a lot of CVs, and sometimes it is hit and miss, they may not find who they are
looking for,” she said.
A pilot run of the new portal was conducted with 100 users
in the last three months of 2017, and the site went live on 2 January this
year. As of the first week of April, the portal has received 280,000 visitors.
The transformation of Jobs Bank into the new MyCareersFuture
was mentioned by Second Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo in March this year.
Other than the intelligent job matching function, Minister
Teo said the portal also highlight jobs that are supported by Adapt and Grow
programmes such as the Professional Conversion Programmes, to help bridge job
and skill mismatches.
“Besides reducing missed matches, we helped to close skills
or wage mismatches. Of the 25,000 jobseekers placed, 40% involved jobseekers
with some form of mismatch. This proportion has grown significantly from just
25% in 2016,” she said in the Parliament session.
As Singapore’s economy restructures, job-skills mismatch is a
growing challenge. According to Minister Teo, placements of mismatch cases
doubled from about 5,000 in 2016 to about 10,000 in 2017.
As such, the Government is stepping up support
for jobseekers with skills or wage mismatches through programmes like the Professional
Conversion Programme (PCP), Career
Support Programme (CSP), and Adapt and Grow initiative.