According to a 2013 GfK survey, 43% of Singaporeans are worried about recession and unemployment, which are the second highest concerns after inflation. Middle-skilled jobs are also predicted to be at risk of vanishing in the future, and where will that leave Singaporean workers whose whole lives have been spent honing and perfecting one skill? Do you worry that you’ll be retrenched during the next economic / financial crisis or replaced by a younger / faster worker? Are you on the lookout for new ways to secure your personal career and livelihood in Singapore with second-skilling?
Recently our local news reported on NTUC’s push for employers and government to support second-skilling, which is about learning an alternate skill, even if it’s unrelated to your current job. The aim is to ensure all workers are well-prepared for an alternative career should our current jobs or skills become obsolete.
Second-skilling is not a new concept, there are already companies such as Papa Palheta, an independent coffee boutique, which offers courses where anyone can learn how to make a good cup of coffee
Papa Palheta specialises in roasting and purveying specialty coffee in Singapore and Malaysia. Other than being the distributor of Synesso, Rocket & Marco commercial machines as well as other coffee making equipment, accessories and maintenance tools, Papa Palheta also drives C-Platform, an avenue where coffee enthusiasts & professionals can hone their coffee making skills.
Located on the 2nd level of Chye Seng Huat Hardware Coffee, C-Platform is equipped with coffee machines, gadgets & apparatus to allow one to understand and learn coffee beyond the bean. Workshops are held on weekdays & weekends.
Our instructor brought us through a quick introduction to coffee, corrected some misunderstood facts and gave us more background to our favourite beverage. He shared with us that the coffee culture in Singapore is changing. Evolving from just sipping coffee as a perk me up, this 3rd wave of coffee revolution involves more educator drinkers who have a keen interest with the transparency and traceability behind every single cup of gourmet coffee.
He went on to do a quick demonstration with the machines, very chim mechanical stuff here.
Before wowing us with the ease at which he delivers his Latte Art.
Our instructor also introduced their most lethal coffee in the house – The Legendary Cold Brew. We clarified that there is no difference between these 2 concoctions; they are just from different batch of label prints. Relatively acidic, this potent brew has a slightly sour aftertaste. I guess I will stick to my usual latte anytime.
How can we not have delicious cakes to go with our coffee?
Here’s the serious stuff on why you should consider. If you are a coffee lover and passionate about providing specialty coffee or opening a cafe one day, C-Platform provides Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) courses where you can hone your coffee-loving second-skill.
Why The Need To Develop Additional Skills?
Things are not looking as rosy as the days of our parents. With our economy fast restructuring, Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) are highly vulnerable to redundancy and statistics have shown that many of our PME peers are now taking more than 13 weeks to find jobs in the market.
With the threat of hungrier foreign talents right at our doorstep and other countries taking away some of our jobs, let’s put up a good fight by raising productivity and becoming better, faster and generate more value add for our companies. We need to become more capable and future ready than our global competition. But no one is indispensable in a corporate work environment, there should be plans for the worse case scenarios.
If the predictions are true that an economic crisis happens in a cycle of 10 years, we are nearing the next coming one in 2016 & 2017. It will be foolish to bask in your current comfort state and allow the downturn to knock you senseless.
Singapore unions are concerned about inclusively helping all workers (young and old workers, locals and foreigners, PMEs and rank-and-file) so Singapore can be a better place to live and work, and allow workers to survive through difficult periods.
Where other countries are struggling with mass unemployment, minimum wages, violence and recessions, it’s of no small significance that Singapore unions are at the stage where they can push employers and government to give all workers a chance to second skill.
While there is still time to react, think about how you can develop your favourite second skill to fall back on should you lose your first job.Instead of drilling deep into your existing scope of work, why not allow yourself to embark on horizontal skilling and be a jack of more than one trade? Simply pick up classes anywhere on your favourite hobby to explore possible second skills.
Not only does NTUC funding schemes help the low wage workers, PMEs can also tap on funding for courses at WDA.
Lets get started while there is still time. Leave no rooms for future regrets.
