Marathon Job Search

Tertiary-educated Tan Wei Thong, a management professional for 15 years, never believed he would give up his Shanghai job as Business Unit Director with a main-board listed company. But when there were early signs that his two primary school going sons were slackening in their studies, Wei Thong decided to return to Singapore.

“The thought of relocating back to Singapore surfaced when I realised my elder son was struggling with his studies,” he said. “I guessed my wife also missed my pair of extra hands, be it in the children’s education, ferrying them for enrichment courses or sharing the household burden.”

However, it never crossed his mind on the need to be retrained in order to fit into the Singapore workforce. Returning to Singapore after his seven-year overseas stint, stark reality hit him as he endured a heart-breaking eight months before he found a new job.

Giving Older Workers an ADVANTAGE!

There’s a refreshingly new sparkle at St Luke’s Eldercare (SLEC), an extension project of St Luke’s Hospital, and one of the largest eldercare facilities in Singapore. The new buzz comes after they got hold of the ADVANTAGE! Scheme and were able to enhance their work processes for the benefit of their older workers, with more than 40% of its employees aged 55 and above.

Currently, SLEC have 11 centres island wide and has been providing quality day care, active rehab and wellness services to the elderly and seniors in the community since 2001. Since they signed on to the scheme, SLEC has significantly improved the work processes of their staff.

“We’ve benefitted from improvements in the job processes of the employees. Through mechanisation of tasks and the enhancement of the processes, the heavy weight borne by our mature employees is reduced and the overall efficiency and safety have increased,” said SLEC Operations Manager Sia Jia Hui. “This ultimately translates, very significantly, to better care for the elderly.”

‘Forklift’ To A New Life

Mohamed Hardi Bin Abdullah calls it the “turning point in my life” when he passed the five-day forklift driver training course at PSA Corporation. Prior to that, the eight-letter word “forklift” was foreign to him as the 33-year-old was only accustomed to the hotel-service industry, where he was a Bell Captain until his hotel was taken over by a new management in 2009.

“I jumped from one contract job to another, rather aimlessly, as I had to make ends meet at home,” recalled the father of a four-year-old girl, who lives in Jurong West. And it was while working at one of these jobs that he found out that most of his colleagues had a forklift licence.

“I asked them further on the job-scope, career advancement and pay-structure as I was not familiar with the warehouse industry. The more I asked, the more interesting and challenging answers I got,” he said. “I later found out that it cost $500 to obtain a forklift licence. This was way beyond my budget.”

Finance Executive Turned Tourism Ambassador

Five years ago, Vany Ramakrishnan would never have dreamt of working in a resort. “I was working in a bank then and I loved the buzz in the finance world,” Vany recalled. “My job gave me lots of interesting exposure, but I wanted to do something where I could meet and connect with people on a face-to-face level.”

Encouraged by the opportunities and growth in the tourism industry, Vany explored her options for a career switch where she discovered the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) – which helps professionals switch to new occupations in other industries. On the advice of the PCP consultants from the Tourism Management Institute of Singapore (TMIS), she took up the WSQ Diploma in Tourism to prepare herself for the tourism industry.

“I’m really glad I went through the diploma programme first,” Vany shared. “The course gave me a good understanding of the different facets of tourism and the areas I could work in. On top of that, I had the chance to have some hands-on industrial experience before making the switch. This really increased my confidence when I went for job interviews.”

Keeping Ideas Alive With Fresh Perspectives

Bernard loves his job. Though the hours are long and the schedule uncertain at times, he would never change it for another.

“I design floral arrangements for walk-in customers, and events such as weddings. I also fulfill weekly orders for companies and hotels. What makes me look forward to work everyday is that no two flower arrangements are the same,” Bernard reflected.

In every project he undertakes, Bernard considers the customer’s budget and preferences, and the nature of the event. He also makes it a point to include a special element in every arrangement, be it the kind of flowers or the supporting material used.

Outside of work, he takes on every opportunity to sharpen his skills by pitting himself against top-notch florists. Over the years, his passion has seen him win the “Florist of the Year” in Green Thumbs 2009, 2010, 2011 and the second prize in the Floral Designers Society (Singapore) Cup in 2006, 2008, 2010.

Switching between parallel worlds

 You are an art thief who learnt by chance that there is a glove with the power to create time rifts. Breaking into the museum, you unknowingly caused a catastrophe that has transported you to a parallel universe. You need to go back in time to fix your wrongs and place things back to what they used to be...

And that sums up the plot of VOID, a first-person puzzle game where players switch between parallel worlds to overcome obstacles. Created by team Minus5, a group of students that recently graduated from the DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, the game prototype won the "Excellence in Technology" award and the "Best Student Game" in the Independent Games Festival (IGF) China.

Forming the team Minus5 are six students – Zoel Gan, Ravindran Mark, Tan Chee Ming, Chan Sin Huan, Leau Tat Sin and Zou Xinru, who attended the WSQ DigiPen-Ubisoft Campus programme. A collaborative effort between DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, Ubisoft Singapore, and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), it is a 10-month course comprising both academic and production phases. Graduates are provided with the necessary knowledge and industry production experience that they need to join the competitive video game industry.

A total of 6 games were developed through 3 cohorts and here are the other five. Do give them a try!