Fresh from the lessons gleaned in the country’s GE 2020, the city’s authorities are focusing on grooming Singaporeans for 5G careers.
Singapore’s 5G gradual rollout will see Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) hiring and reskilling some 1,000 professionals, due to support from the city’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
Of these new roles, 30% are new portfolios, while the remainder consists of telecom professionals who will be upskilled in the areas of 5G network, cybersecurity and solution engineering.
As the city’s 5G rollout gathers momentum and more enterprises participate in the ecosystem, demand for 5G professionals is expected to grow. The announcement for the jobs initiative was made at the virtual event ConnecTechAsia, where S Iswaran, the minister in charge of communications and information said: “To ensure a strong pipeline of talent who can hit the ground running, IMDA will appoint the National University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic as the 5G and Telecoms Programme Manager. As established training partners in Singapore, they will coordinate programs to develop skills across our 5G ecosystem, with the aim to train 5,000 5G professionals over the next three years.”
Singaporeans First
According to IMDA’s Chief Executive Lew Chuen Hong: “Talent development is the next critical phase of our investment in 5G. This effort extends Singapore’s momentum in 5G following our investment in building infrastructure capabilities. We have worked with the local MNOs to unlock the potential of 5G for these 1,000 professionals and will continue to do so to create good jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans.”
At the same time, to put in place a strong pipeline of 5G talent that is skilled and ready, IMDA is leading efforts to appoint credible training partners to impart relevant knowledge across the ecosystem. “The first wave of training will begin at the end of 2020 with the MNOs’ 5G professionals,” Lew said.
Under the TechSkills Accelerator initiative, IMDA has set up 5G Workforce Transformation Committees with the MNOs to oversee the planning and development of their 5G workforce capabilities. The two announced Telecoms Programme Managers will aggregate hiring and training requirements to co-develop quality training to meet demand, and enable Singaporeans to take on 5G jobs.
