Four in every five (81%) employees in Singapore are concerned about the impact of digitalisation on jobs and roles in their respective industries, the Emerging Jobs and Skills Report from NTUC LearningHub shows.
Over 650 working professionals from Singapore were surveyed in December 2021, including employers and employees.
Findings also show that 46% of employees surveyed see their main concern about digitalisation at the workplace as the “need to learn new skills to stay relevant.”
This is followed by the fear of “not being able to adapt to new and complex skills” (40%) and “being replaced due to the lack of skills” (31%).
Most employees (93%) opine that there is a need to upgrade their skills in order to keep themselves relevant and competitive in their current role. The top three reasons cited by employees for upskilling are to have “better career progression opportunities” (66%), “better pay” (58%), and “better match with existing skillsets” (50%).
On the other hand, the employers surveyed say that the main impact of digitalisation on the workforce is the need to reskill and upskill workers to meet new skill demands (voted 57%).
This is followed by “employees will spend less time in automated/ repetitive work” (54%), and “employees will have to take on hybrid roles, that is, roles that require a mix of different skill sets” (54%).
Anthony Chew, NTUC LearningHub’s Director of Infocomm Technology, urged trainees to take advantage of digital transformation to uplift their skillsets and employability, instead of fearing digitalisation in the new world order.
“In fact, employers see digitalisation as an opportunity to upgrade workforce competencies so that their employees can work alongside digital solutions and free up their time for higher-value work,” said Chew.
“All in all, workers who are able to adapt well with digital transformation will be considered an asset to the organisations they work for, regardless of which sector they are in, as digital skills today are easily transferrable across job functions and sectors,” he added.
