NTUC forms tech talent association to keep ICT professionals employable

Singapore's National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has started a new association known as Tech Talent Assembly (TTAB) as a bid to strengthen its outreach and better serve infocomm technology (ICT) professionals in the growing ICT sector.

According to its press release, this initiative is aligned with NTUC's Labour Movement’s plans to provide networking opportunities and training support for ICT professionals, and help them upskill and remain employable amidst the constantly evolving technology advancement and industry transformation.

NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng, shared: "As a Labour Movement for all workers, we want to help prepare workers for the future and transform them into Worker 4.0 – help them to be prepared for new jobs, relevant with new skills and resilient to new ways of working.”

TTAB, which charges a monthly membership fee of S$9, will be working with industry partners to develop a slew of initiatives for ICT professionals in the next year. The association hopes to attract members and offer value to them through the following programmes:

• Thought leadership series

TTAB will organise regular fireside chats with industry leaders to help ICT professionals keep abreast with latest technology trends and skills-in-demand. They will hear first-hand from employers on their hiring challenges and expectations.

The first installment of the thought leadership Series will kick off on 28 November 2018 at NTUC Centre, focusing on cybersecurity. The subsequent installments will focus on data analytics, cloud technology, API developments, process automation, digital marketing and many more.

• Sandboxing sessions

This sandboxing initiative aims to provide a conducive environment for companies and selected ICT professionals to work on projects or problem statements together. Through this, candidates will be able to enhance their skill sets and possibly further develop their solutions with companies.

• Gig platforms

By collaborating with a platform partner on gig jobs, TTAB members can develop valuable skills and build up their ICT-related portfolio for full-time employment and value-add to the shared economy of highly skilled technology workers.

• Pilot curated programmes

TTAB will be working with NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to pilot curated programmes to equip in-employment workers or mid-career job seekers with skills upgrading. Ng Tiong Gee, appointed the president of TTAB, having been in the IT industry for over 30 years, said: "By providing leadership guidance from industry experts on industry trends and skillsets required, coupled with opportunities for sandbox, gig jobs or apprenticeship programmes for our members, I believe this will help them to be future ready for the new wave of technologies. We hope to collaborate with industry partners on these initiatives.”

ALSO READ: NTUC partners SP to equip up to 1,000 EPME staff with Industry 4.0 skills

Photo / 123RF