Portal to support career growth, lifelong learning
Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE – From self-help articles to psychometric assessment tools to job-matching functions — these are among the features that can be found on a one-stop education, training and career online portal to help people take charge of their careers and lifelong learning.
The Individual Learning Portfolio (ILP) — part of the SkillsFuture initiative to empower every Singaporean to take ownership of his or her career path — will be implemented in stages over the next few years from 2017, said the SkillsFuture secretariat yesterday.
The interactive online service —which is open to students and working adults, both Singaporeans and permanent residents — has inventory assessment tools to help them understand their work interests and skills confidence. With its intelligent job-matching and training-recommendation functions, the portal will also be able to link up individuals to the relevant types of industries and occupations, as well as jobs available through the Jobs Bank.
Individuals can also refer to the repository of self-help articles and government-subsidised training courses listed on the portal to help them in their decision-making.
The ILP has no “end-point” as it is meant to support individuals’ education, training and career needs throughout life, said the secretariat.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is recruiting education and career guidance (ECG) counsellors, who are expected to be deployed from July. Nearly 100 ECG counsellors are expected to serve schools, polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) colleges, and they will help students to make better informed choices.
Each polytechnic and ITE college will have six ECG counsellors, while one ECG counsellor will be assigned for every five schools such as secondary schools and junior colleges.
Schools such as Yishun Town Secondary School already have some form of education and career guidance programme for their students.
Yishun Town conducts learning journeys to educational institutions’ open houses as well as industry visits to places such as the State Courts. It also organises a career day where students can learn more about work in various sectors, such as information technology, healthcare, business and social service. AMANDA LEE
