Not enough focus on soft skills in S’pore workforce: Study

A report published by SMU and J P Morgan which studied skills challenges in the five core member-states in the Association of South-east Asian - Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines - found that there is an insufficient focus on teaching soft skills, even in the Government’s SkillsFuture programmes. This is despite the focus on innovation and the workforce’s adaptability as drivers of future economic growth. The study found that in Singapore, the success of the country’s approach towards managing skills through a raft of measures, including plugging skills gaps through foreign labour -  has brought with it other skills challenges. The findings of the report were derived from interviews with the National Trades Union Congress, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (now Workforce Singapore), and industry associations. Skills gaps were found in three key sectors here: Info-communications technology; electronics and electrical manufacturing; and finance and insurance.