Opening Address by SMS Tan Kiat How at Tech Skill Up Festival

12 MAR 2025

Yean Cheong, Executive Director, SGTech

Francis Lee, Executive Director, Singapore Computer Society

Distinguished guests

Colleagues and friends

A very good morning to all of you.

It is wonderful to join all of you here at Singapore’s first Tech Skill-Up Festival. This Festival is brought to you by the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) for ITE and Polytechnic Alliance, or TIP Alliance for short.
First, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to IMDA, SGTech and all the participating companies that have made this Festival possible.
This Festival aims to showcase the benefits of skills-based hiring as well as the many career and up-skilling pathways available to our ICT students and graduates.
There is an exciting line-up of showcases at the Festival.

a. There are about 100 companies, both from the tech and non-tech sectors, hiring for more than 1,000 tech positions here at this Festival. They include companies like Oracle, Temus, and SingTel, looking to hire tech talent with skills in emerging fields like AI, data science, cybersecurity, and software development.

b. Industry partners, including hiring companies and training providers are on hand to provide insights into latest tech trends and the skills required in today’s workplaces.
There is something for everyone:

a. Whether you are a student looking for an internship or apprenticeship to build your skills and networks before entering the workforce;

b. Or you are looking for a tech-related job opportunity as a fresh graduate from our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL);

c. Or you are already in the tech sector and thinking about your next career move;

d. Or you are a mid-career looking to pivot into a tech role.
I hope that all attendees will benefit from this Festival.
I have heard from some ICT graduates and tech professionals that they are concerned about the employment prospects given recent news of retrenchments in some companies.
The sector remains poised for growth, and continues to deliver good jobs for Singaporeans.

a. Singapore’s Digital Economy continues to be significant, accounting for 17.7% of Singapore’s total GDP in 2023. It represents an annual growth rate of 11.2% from 2018 to 2023, almost double the overall GDP growth rate over the same period.

b. We are also seeing substantial investment in transformative technologies like AI.
Demand for tech roles in Singapore remains healthy.

a. Tech jobs accounted for a rising share of total employment from 4.5% in 2019 to 5.3% in 2024. These jobs also continue to command good starting salaries – with tech fresh university graduates earning a median monthly wage of $5,600, which is about 25% more than the average fresh graduate.

b. The digitalisation of traditionally non-tech industries is picking up speed, creating demand for tech talent across the entire economy.

c. Companies in these non-tech sectors now contribute around 58% of all tech roles.
And we are also seeing shifts in tech roles, including new roles that require new skillsets.

a. The increased adoption of AI has resulted in new roles like AI engineers and machine learning specialists being highly sought after.

b. Cloud architects and DevOps engineers have become mission-critical as businesses migrate from on-premise infrastructure to distributed cloud environments.

c. Meanwhile, cybersecurity has become a strategic imperative, creating demand for threat intelligence analysts, security operations specialists, and digital forensics experts.
What all this means is that the demand for tech talent will continue to grow, and existing tech workers will need to continue to upskill or reskill to remain relevant.

a. Globally, a 2024 report from management consulting firm Korn Ferry estimates that by 2030, there will be a global shortage of more than 85 million tech workers.

b. In Singapore, a Randstad survey found that 66% of employers polled were concerned about the shortage of tech talent with the required skills.

c. In a separate report by “Manpower”, talent in IT and Data were amongst the most difficult to hire for roles in Singapore.
We are redoubling our efforts to ensure a steady pipeline of tech talent to meet demand and create opportunities for good jobs for all Singaporeans.
We are building on a strong foundation.
We are at the heart of the fastest growing digital economy in the world.

a. Singapore plays an important role as a gateway to Southeast Asia’s 650 million consumers. Many tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta have their regional HQs here.

b. Our tech talent pipeline remains robust, with Singaporean students consistently ranking amongst the top in STEM assessments globally.

c. They are also adept at working in multicultural and multidimensional teams, which put them in good stead to thrive in international environments.
Building from this base, we want to ensure that those with the attitude and aptitude to work in tech is provided the opportunity to do so. This is at the heart of our skills-based approach.
How are we achieving this?
First, by strengthening our Pre-Employment Training (PET) pipeline through the promotion of longer internship and apprenticeship programmes, which are more impactful and allows our students to gain industry relevant skills early on.

a. I am glad to see more IHLs offering students year-long internships and more companies taking the effort to develop meaningful experiences for these interns, such as getting them involved in real-world projects, mentorships and skills certifications.

b. It is a win-win for all parties when done well – students get to gain valuable industry experience, companies get to have interns contributing to real-world projects and schools get to ensure their students are kept abreast of the latest industry trends.
Second, we are also redoubling our efforts to help mid-career workers transit into tech roles.

a. Initiatives like IMDA’s Company-Led Training and Work-Study Programmes enable workers to acquire the relevant skills to work in tech, through working on actual projects that companies they are attached to are working on.

b. Till date, these initiatives, and others under the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA), have placed more than 19,000 locals into good tech jobs.

c. For emerging tech like AI, we are also providing more company-led training opportunities for AI practitioners. For example, by expanding the AI Apprenticeship Programme together with AI Singapore, to meet the growing demand for experts in AI.
But the Government cannot do this alone. We need companies to change the way they hire to focus on skills rather than just on academic qualifications.
The Government, together with our partners SGTech and the Singapore Computer Society, has been spearheading this push through the TIP Alliance, where schools, tech industry associations and leading employers come together to drive this mindset change.
This has so far yielded positive outcomes.

a. I am pleased to update that since its launch in 2022, over 1,000 good tech jobs have been committed for ITE and Polytechnic tech graduates. This includes roles in software engineering, cybersecurity, and also emerging tech like AI.

b. Over 1,300 students have also completed year-long enhanced internships and gained industry-relevant skills and on-the-job experience in companies like Accenture, DBS, Inspire-Tech and OCBC over the last two years. This year, we have another 700 polytechnic students embarking on year-long enhanced internships. Till date, over 300 companies have offered these students such internships.

c. The skills-based hiring movement is also gaining momentum – employers are increasingly adopting a skills-based hiring approach rather than academic qualifications.

i. Take for example, Zarine Wong, who graduated from Republic Polytechnic with a Diploma in Infocomm Security Management in 2021. She was hired by Ensign Infosecurity, a member of the TIP Alliance, as a Security Operations Centre Analyst due to her technical expertise.

ii. In recognition of her good performance, she received funding from the company to attain the Global Information Assurance Certification and Certified Incident Handler (GCIH) certification. This enabled Zarine to take up a team lead position within a year, and eventually transited towards a larger role in threat detection and response.

iii. To further build her skillsets, she is currently working towards becoming an Offensive Security Certified Professional (OCSP). This is also funded by Ensign, in line with their commitment to upskill their employees in the ever-evolving cyber industry.
I am glad to share that we have over 200 companies who have pledged to adopt skills-based hiring for their tech workforce.
And to the students or fresh graduates here, I would like to encourage you to take advantage of the many opportunities to build up your repertoire of skills.
One of the FowardSG chapters calls for us to “embrace learning beyond grades”. There are now numerous pathways to success, and we encourage companies to view a candidate’s qualities more holistically. It is also incumbent upon all of you to seize the opportunities. For a start, you can:

a. Start by documenting your skills beyond your academic qualifications, keeping an account of the projects, CCAs, and part-time work, that demonstrate valuable skills like teamwork, problem-solving, and communication;

b. Develop a skills-focused resume that highlights capabilities, rather than just education history; and

c. Pursue certifications and micro-credentials that validate specific skills that employers value;

d. For the men out there, continue to keep updated on new technical skills during your time in National Service.
The companies present here have also committed to upskilling and reskilling their employees for a lifelong career in tech. I would therefore encourage you to speak to them to see how they are doing so and find out the skills they are looking for.
Together we can build a more dynamic, inclusive tech industry where opportunity is determined not by just by paper qualifications but also by skills and other capabilities that you bring to the table. This is the broader meritocracy that we envisage under Forward Singapore.
Wishing all of you all the best and may you have a productive time at the Festival.