Working adult

What Forward Singapore means for you as a working adult

Rapid technological advancements, like Artificial Intelligence, present both opportunity and disruption for industries and our jobs. While some jobs will become obsolete, new ones which require new skills, will be created. This is something businesses and workers will have to adapt to.

Pursue lifelong learning

We will push for more significant investments to support mature mid-career Singaporeans to pursue substantive reskilling and upskilling. These would include:

• A further, substantial top-up of the SkillsFuture Credit. Read more on New SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme.

• Training allowances for mature mid-career Singaporeans, so that they can have some financial support when they take time off for full-time, long-form training

• Support for Singaporeans who already have a publicly-funded diploma or higher qualification to obtain another publicly-funded diploma qualification

More importantly, individuals must take ownership of their learning throughout life; they should, embrace ‘career resilience’ and not just ‘job stability’. This includes actively seeking out available opportunities and resources to equip themselves with skills that help them stay relevant and versatile.

Ultimately, the shift to become a full-fledged learning society will require each Singaporean to adopt a mindset of continuous learning. We hope to make it a norm for Singaporeans in their forties, fifties and even sixties to discuss what new skills they are planning to acquire or to enthusiastically explore new possible career pivots. Together, we can broaden our definition of success, to appreciate and respect a diversity of talents.

Build career agility and resilience

We will support job transitions through better jobs matching and career planning.

By providing Singaporeans with greater access to information and effective career guidance services to empower them to take ownership of their careers and make longer-term career plans. We aim to give Singaporeans more personalised recommendations on careers and skills pathways. This will help them to figure out what skills are in demand, and which skills and experiences they need for new career pathways.

We will also introduce a new scheme to help involuntarily unemployed jobseekers bounce back stronger. The scheme could comprise financial support that is conditional upon workers doing their part to actively search for jobs every month; and targeted assistance for involuntarily unemployed workers in the lower- and middle-income groups, who are more likely to face financial pressures.

Better support for achieving work-life harmony

Flexible work arrangements are one important way to achieve more family-friendly workplaces.

With an ageing population, more of us will also have caregiving responsibilities. Flexible work arrangements will become even more important in helping workers achieve better balance between their jobs and caregiving duties, and enable them to remain in the workforce.

We will strengthen our efforts to help more employers implement flexible work arrangements and build on the existing momentum to make such arrangements more prevalent.

Together with tripartite partners, the Government is developing a set of Tripartite Guidelines on flexible work arrangements to be released in 2024. These guidelines will require employers to consider staff requests for flexible work arrangements fairly; they are aimed at encouraging better communication and engagement between employers and employees to find mutually agreeable flexible work arrangements.

Beyond guidelines, we will support employers in building stronger human resource (HR) capabilities to implement flexible work arrangements well. This includes redesigning job roles and processes to be more suitable for flexible work arrangements, rethinking HR policies, and training managers to manage a flexible workforce more effectively.

Wage gaps across professionals to be reduced

We will continue to regularly review the schemes that uplift our lower-wage workers, such as Workfare, Progressive Wage Model and Local Qualifying Salary.

We ask that our communities and employers join us in better appreciating and fairly remunerating those doing ‘hands’ and ‘heart’ jobs. They include our professional tradespeople like electricians and plumbers, as well as those in the healthcare and aged care sectors.

We will narrow the salary gaps between ITE graduates and graduates from polytechnics and autonomous universities. We will enable more ITE graduates to upskill and upgrade early, and provide more help for them in their upgrading journey.

Local talent to be nurtured while keeping the economy open

As we keep our economy open, we will:

• Do more to better support Singaporeans with the potential to shine — locally and globally — as specialists and leaders in their respective fields and industries. In particular, we would like to develop and nurture more Singaporean corporate leaders, especially for top regional roles in multi-national corporations. Read more on Global Business Leaders Programme.

• Do more to support skills and technology transfer from multi-national corporations and foreign professionals. This will help to raise the capabilities of our local businesses and workers.

• Continually manage the flow and calibre of foreign employees. This year, the Government implemented the Complementarity Assessment Framework for Employment Pass (EP) applicants. This transparent, points-based system enables businesses to clearly understand how the Government assesses and approves EP applications.

• Ensure that employers uphold fair employment practices and take a strong stance against discrimination at the workplace.

• More details are in Chapter 3.

Doing our part as one united people

We also encourage you to consider your roles and responsibilities towards your community and fellow Singaporeans. Head to I am interested in giving back as an individual for more details.

Find out more about the support for working adults at the Together, for Better website

Download reports

• Download Forward SG Report [PDF, 20 MB]

• Download Forward SG Summary Booklet [PDF, 4.6 MB]
  (In English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil)