CFS unveiled its latest initiative, CFS Platinum: silverjobs.sg – a job portal where seniors can confidently seek job offers from employers who are looking for mature workers to fill-in job vacancies.
Silverjobs.sg was launched by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for National Development on 28 August at the First Inclusive Job Fair organized by Jurong Spring in collaboration with SG Enable, e2i, SW CDC and CFS.
In May 2017, IBM Singapore, Singapore Polytechnic and CFS embarked on a journey to develop a platform to facilitate employment opportunities for seniors using design thinking principles.
Focus group discussions were conducted to understand the needs of seniors and industry/community partners; and solutions were continuously validated with them before developing this Silverjobs.sg, a job portal for seniors.
CFS hopes that this job portal would complement its aim to develop employment pathways for seniors by:
1) Profile and Plan:
- Assess senior job seekers’ employability
- Profile their motivation and competencies
- Match to potential job opportunities, and plan out training path for each individual
2) Train and Prepare:
- Conduct pre-employment training on general employable skills such as self-awareness of employability, skills gap and training resources
- Prepare right mindset for re-employment
- Financial planning to acquire relevant financial literacy in areas such as insurance, wills, housing requirements, existing and future healthcare expenditure base on existing savings and required future earnings from active participation in workforce
- Practical workplace IT skills to overcome prevalent potential barrier to contribution, such as area of work involving digital communication and collaboration
3) Place and Coach:
- Place work ready workers on the job
- Provide post placement support for workplace adaptation and integration, such as through facilitating communication with employers.
By doing so, CFS also hopes to be the information and resource portal for employment for seniors.
“We hope to complement our government’s initiatives in getting our seniors to be work ready and participating employers to be work-place ready”. said Ms Lim Sia Hoe, Executive Director, CFS.
“In Singapore’s ever evolving economy and workforce, the value of data is in the insights it can provide and the value of the employee is in their willingness to transform. IBM is proud to work with CFS and Singapore Polytechnic to create this job portal with the purpose of providing insights on the profile and needs of senior job-seekers as well as potential employers, and exploring the ideal solution that could help match senior job-seekers to potential age-friendly employers” said Abraham Thomas, Managing Director, IBM Singapore.
The CFS Platinum is also designed to be an efficient senior-friendly platform so that seniors can overcome the fear of using mobile devices (technology), which may hinder them from applying for jobs. Its user-friendly interface is easy to navigate, and makes it easier for seniors to apply for jobs online.
Mr Hee Joh Liang, Deputy Principal (Development), Singapore Polytechnic (SP) said, “This meaningful initiative has not only benefitted the seniors but it has also enabled our students to acquire greater social consciousness as well as promote inclusivity within the community, using the design thinking skills that they have learnt in SP.”
