By: 永久浪客/Forever Vagabond
In its biannual Macroeconomic Review released yesterday, MAS said that despite jobs being available, many retrenched PMETs find it difficult to qualify for them (‘Mismatch of skills hurting labour market: MAS‘).
It added that these retrenched PMETs are struggling to find new jobs as they no longer have the skills employers want.
Layoffs have increased with figures showing 2.4 layoffs per 1,000 workers in the first half of this year compared to 1.7 over the same period last year. PMETs accounted for more than two-thirds of the residents being laid off.
MAS pointed to the retrenched PMETs not having the right skills for the new jobs. The solution lies in part with the workers themselves, MAS said.
“(They) should equip themselves with the necessary skills to fill the jobs that are currently available and will be in demand in the coming years,” it noted.
“These include professionals in IT, engineering and finance, as well as healthcare workers and early childhood educators. Increasingly, more specialised skills would be needed to take on these new jobs, such as capabilities in IT applications and cyber security analytics.”
IDA hires foreign fresh psychology graduate for IT job
Meanwhile, the government agencies appear to be hiring foreigners with non-IT degrees to do IT jobs.
This came to light 2 years ago when a former IDA staff was jailed 10 months for having sex with an underage girl (‘Ex-IT consultant jailed 10 months for underage sex‘).
Alan Ramos, a Mexican IT consultant working for IDA at the time, was found guilty of having BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism) sex with a 15-year-old student twice in a flat in Ang Mo Kio. Ten other charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing. Ramos had met the girl online.
As news of the underage sex broke, netizens found that Ramos was a foreign fresh graduate hired by IDA:
Ramos graduated from Harvard in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Despite not having an IT degree, IDA went ahead to hire him and brought him to Singapore shortly after his graduation.
He was recruited by IDA to manage software development as an IT consultant until his arrest.
Many netizens are asking if IDA can hire a foreign person with non-IT degree to do IT work, why can’t IDA support Singaporeans by hiring our retrenched local PMETs with non-IT degree too?
For that matter, why can’t MAS itself hire Singaporeans to lead its FinTech Office?
The MAS’ FinTech Office handles FinTech matters and promotes Singapore as a FinTech hub. More importantly, it coordinates various funding schemes administered by various government agencies. Presently, it is led by Mr Sopnendu Mohanty and Mr Steve Leonard.