Joint‑reply to TODAY Forum letter “Move away from out‑of‑date questions in recruitment”

PSD, WDA and TAFEP's joint-reply to TODAY Forum letter "Move away from out-of-date questions in recruitment"

Help at hand for mature PMEs to secure work

We agree with Mr Gathani that recruitment should be based on merit (“Move away from out-of-date questions in recruitment”, 15 Oct).

The public sector adheres to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, which state that employers should apply relevant and objective selection criteria consistently for all aspects of employment including recruitment.

The public sector’s recruitment portal (www.careers.gov.sg) does not require applicants to provide a photograph and information such as gender, age and race in the application form.

The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) also provides advice and assistance to employers to help them implement fair and progressive employment practices.

WDA Career Centres located island-wide offer a suite of services and programmes to assist unemployed individuals.  This includes a career and training advisory to enhance their employability, assistance in job search via recruitment and networking events and our online Jobs Bank portal, motivational and career skills workshops as well as funding for WDA-supported training programmes.  Such services are available to all Singaporean job-seekers.

The Career Support Programme (CSP) provides targeted assistance for unemployed mature professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) who have been searching actively for a job for a considerable period of time, by providing limited wage support to employers who hire them.

The Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Survey 2014 shows that PMEs who have been unemployed for six months or more usually encounter greater difficulty in finding jobs.

PMEs requiring assistance in employment and employability can contact WDA Career Centres at 6883 5883 to learn more about the programmes.

Lim Teck Kiat
Director
Human Resource Policy
Public Service Division

Mrs Roslyn Ten
General Manager
Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practice

Ms Patricia Woo
Director
Corporate and Marketing Communications Division
Singapore Workforce Development Agency