In stark contrast to job cuts and losses in retail and hospitality sectors, Singapore’s financial sector continues to create jobs throughout the Covid-19 crisis, with 1,900 net openings in the first half of 2020.
However, the industry must not be complacent. After all, big changes are happening brought about by new technologies and regulations — and there is no way of saying if the next crisis will hit this sector more directly as it did before.
“Just because the sector has done well on the jobs front so far does not mean that it will continue to do so in the future,” says Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). “The economic recovery is uneven and remains highly uncertain.”
Furthermore, the pandemic has created fundamental changes in industry structure, work processes, and job functions. “If we do not retrain to take on new tasks or move to new roles, we will be left behind by these changes,” he warns.
To this end, MAS is leading a concerted effort with the whole industry to “strengthen the Singaporean core” in financial services. As part of the broader efforts in doing so, MAS, in conjunction with the Institute of Banking and Finance, has launched the “Growing Timber” webinar series, meant to flag openings available, skills needed and successful cases of “upskilling” and “reskilling”.
Due to the rapidly changing of the industry and new technologies, there is a gap between what the industry wants, and what the job seekers can offer.
MAS, citing a pilot employment outlook survey for the financial sector done last year, says respondents have the most openings for technology-related roles, such as application developers, application architects, and business analysts.
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Take for example, enterprise architects. They help shape and implement technology projects, provide technical oversight for technology planning across the business, and set the technical standards to be followed. It requires years of training and experience.
“The local supply of talent for such jobs is quite limited and financial institutions will need to rely on expertise from abroad while building a pipeline of locals for these advanced tech roles,” says Menon.
Other jobs functions in demand are those in private banking and wealth management, such as relationship management, process excellence, and digital transformation.
The survey respondents are the 30 financial institutions here who between them hire 40% of the workforce of this industry.
But the hirers need experienced people. More than 60% of the roles required a certain level of experience or those with specialist knowledge.
Menon urges the hirers to make a concerted effort, take a “calculated chance” and give mid-career jobseekers the opportunity to be trained into these new job roles, even though they do not necessarily tick all the boxes. “Likewise, jobseekers must be willing to step out of their comfort zone, and take a stab at trying new roles and picking up new skills,” he adds.
Recognising the anxiety of new graduates, MAS is also introducing a new WorkStudy Support Programme to co-fund the internship stipend of students who are trainees at financial institutions. The government will chip in 80% of the monthly stipend, capped at $1,000 per head.
Menon describes growing timber as “longterm commitment”, and in the same vein, this business of getting ready for new job descriptions too. “But with persistence and an enterprising spirit, we will create a lush forest: A world-class financial sector workforce ready for the future,” he says.
