50-year-old who heeded calls to upgrade still looking for the better job, Gerald Giam

Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Gerald Giam in his Facebook told the story of a 50-year-old man who followed the Government’s advise to upgrade, but is still unable to land a job despite sending out dozens of resumes.
Mr Giam met Kamal (not his real name) yesterday (21 Apr) during his house visits at Simei. Mr Giam said, growing up poor with little education, Kamal worked his way up and recently heeded the call to upgrade himself and obtained his undergraduate qualification from a field that is classified as a “rapidly growing professions” by the Workforce Development Agency.
Kamal had hoped that his better qualification would enable him to increase his income to find a better paying job to help him fund his children’s tertiary education.
The NCMP wondered if the lack of better job opportunities for Kamal was because of his insufficient experience in the field or simple because of age discrimination.
“I don’t know for sure, but we do know that age discrimination is an issue faced by many older workers, accounting for a fifth of complaints to TAFEP,” said Mr Giam.
“We all need to work harder to address this issue. I hope more employers will give qualified older workers a chance to prove themselves,” he added.
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Article was edited after publication.
NCMP Gerald Giam’s clarification as follows: “Please note that I did not write or imply that Mr Kamal is jobless. He is seeking a new job commensurate with his recently-obtained qualifications.”