More hope for retrenched professionals, managers and executives (PMEs)

The Career Activation Programme, a community based peer-to-peer programme which was initiated by NTUC's PME division and social enterprise GioCareers will be enhanced to provide more comprehensive assistance for the laid-off PMEs aged 40 and above as they face the most difficulty in finding jobs. The Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Market Report revealed that PMEs constituted 65% of the overall redundancies in the first quarter of 2016.

Since the launch of the programme in July 2015, it has reached out to 98 mature PMEs over 10 sessions and managed to help 22 mature PMEs return to the workforce with a team of 30 career activists.

Moreover, there will be additional forms of support such as an online forum, workshop on career-life planning and management and follow-ups even after the participants find jobs will be provided to ensure they integrate well into the new environment.

Volunteers in the Career Activation Programme are generally PMEs who have been in same boat whereby they have faced challenging job-hunts themselves. This will enable volunteers have more empathy to help participants to identify the obstacles in their careers. Volunteers will go through structured training and certification at NTUC LearningHub to improve their listening and coaching skills.

The NTUC Assistant Secretary-General said that by providing this support programme, it fills up the “emotional and confidence gap” that workers need to look for jobs and attend interviews with a positive mindset. By enhancing the programme and the quality of the Career Activists, the programme hopes to reach out to those who really require assistance and help more build the necessary emotional and resilience to overcome the challenges in managing and developing their careers.