After initial lukewarm response, early childhood career fair in Punggol hopes to attract more jobseekers this weekend
Jobseekers at the e-career fair for the Early Childhood Care and Education Sector which is accompanied by a week-long physical career fair at Waterway Point Mall from July 4 to July 9, 2017. Photo taken on July 7, 2017. Photo: Esther Leong/ TODAY
SINGAPORE — An early childhood career fair held in Punggol has received lukewarm response so far, with the operators hoping for a stronger turnout during the weekend before it ends on Sunday (July 9).
The fair, which started on Tuesday, has over 1,000 openings on offer from 10 pre-school operators. However, it has been attended by just over 500 jobseekers as of Friday.
Jointly launched by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), the fair at Punggol Waterway Point Mall is part of the Early Childhood Manpower Plan announced by Minister Tan Chuan-Jin last October. The plan aims to attract about 4,000 more early childhood professionals in the next three to four years.
Sunflower Childcare Group - which has 40 job vacancies across its 19 centres – saw about 50 walk-in interviewees in the last four days, out of which 20 to 30 have been shortlisted for a second round of the interview by the respective centres’ principal.
Its manager, Ms Jolene Koh Mei Lin, said the number paled in comparison to the average of 80 people she spoke to in a day during a similar fair conducted at Toa Payoh HDB Hub earlier this year.
“Maybe it’s the location. Punggol, after all, is not that centralised,” she said, adding that Punggol Waterway Point may be an unfamiliar mall to some since it just opened last year.
“Also, most people need to change MRT and take the Circle Line or (some other) lines before they can reach here.”
“Hopefully we will see more people during the weekend,” she added.
Ms Stella Tan, human resources manager of Skool4Kidz, noted the same trend. In the past four days, she met only about 30 to 35 people a day at the fair, compared to at least 60 during a similar event in Suntec City in March.
Of those she met in this fair, 25 candidates are considered, filling only about half its number of vacancies – 13 in existing centres and about 50 in the new Skool4Kidz Campus @ Sengkang Riverside Park, which is slated to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Still, Ms Tan said that the fair “does meet my objective, because the people (we) want to recruit are from Punggol (and) Sengkang, which is (near) to my new opening centre at Sengkang (Riverside) Park.”
E-Bridge Pre-School had shortlisted about “30 plus” candidates for a second round of interview by the end of Thursday (July 6), but is hopeful of better attendance during the weekend.
“It’s quite okay, but we will probably have more people coming during the weekend,” said a staff in the operator’s human resources department who identified herself only as Ms Lee. “By Sunday, hopefully we can have about 100 (candidates) shortlisted for the second round.”
Meanwhile, PAP Community Foundation (PCF) – which has more than 350 vacancies in its 370 centres islandwide – is “encouraged” by the turnout and response from candidates thus far.
Its spokesperson said that more than 240 candidates were interviewed for positions at its SparkleTots Preschools by the end of Thursday, out of which about half had been shortlisted for second interviews.
“With publicity of the job fair on the radio and social media, we are positive of a larger turnout and we look forward to meeting more candidates over the weekend,” she said.
The fair is accompanied by an early childhood e-career fair - which was also launched on Tuesday and will last till Sept 15 - in which jobseekers are able to connect with operators and vice versa through a job-matching online portal.
As of Friday, about 300 people had indicated their interest on the portal.
The pre-school sector in Singapore has been characterised by high teacher turnover rate, due to generally low remuneration. According to data gathered by ECDA in 2015, pre-school teachers earn an average of S$2,200 to S$3,000 a month, which is usually lower than that of primary school teachers.
