logo
SkillsFuture Singapore: Over 315,000 Singaporeans Utilizing SkillsFuture's Digital Passport for Career Advancement, ETHRWorldSEA

SkillsFuture Singapore: Over 315,000 Singaporeans Utilizing SkillsFuture's Digital Passport for Career Advancement, ETHRWorldSEA

Time of India26-05-2025

Advt
By ,
Agencies
A growing number of Singaporeans are turning to the Careers and Skills Passport , an online tool launched by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) in November 2024, to strengthen their employability and streamline job applications. As of April 30, 315,000 individuals have used the platform to consolidate and verify their career, skills, and training records Designed in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Education and GovTech, the tool offers workers a centralised and secure way to present verified professional credentials , academic qualifications, and skills acquired through SSG-funded or self-initiated training. These verified records can supplement résumés and be selectively shared with employers and job portals such as Jobstreet and FastJobs. So far, 4,900 users have shared their digital profiles with potential employers.The tool is part of a wider push by SSG to build a future-ready workforce as it marks its 10th anniversary in 2025. At a commemorative event attended by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and key ministers, SSG also announced new workforce initiatives , including the upcoming SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme. The scheme, launching later this year, will provide up to $6,000 over six months to lower- and middle-income job seekers who remain unemployed.With over 500,000 workers undergoing training annually and employer participation doubling to 24,000 since 2015, SSG is intensifying efforts to embed skills-first hiring and learning across industries. CEO Tan Kok Yam emphasised the need to support individuals in managing career health and enable businesses to hire based on skills rather than credentials alone.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Japan, South Korea mark 60 years of ties despite tensions, uncertainty
Japan, South Korea mark 60 years of ties despite tensions, uncertainty

Business Standard

time6 hours ago

  • Business Standard

Japan, South Korea mark 60 years of ties despite tensions, uncertainty

Japan and South Korea are marking the 60th anniversary of the normalisation of their diplomatic relations Sunday. The two Asian powers, rivals and neighbours, have often had little to celebrate, much of their rancour linked to Japan's brutal colonial rule of Korea in the early 20th century. Things have gotten better in recent years, but both nations, each a strong ally of the United States now face political uncertainty and a growing unease about the future of their ties. Here's a look at one of Northeast Asia's most crucial relationships, from both capitals, by two correspondents from The Associated Press. The view from Seoul South Korea's new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, is determined to break sharply from the policies of his disgraced predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, who now faces a trial on charges of leading an insurrection over his imposition of martial law in December. Relations with Japan, however, are one area where Lee, who describes himself as a pragmatist in foreign policy, may find himself cautiously building on Yoon's approach. Before his removal from office in April, the conservative former president tried to repair relations with Japan. Yoon wanted to also tighten the countries' three-way security cooperation with Washington to counter North Korean nuclear threats. In 2023, Yoon announced a South Korea-funded compensation plan for colonial-era forced laborers. That decision caused a strong backlash from victims and their supporters, who had demanded direct payments from Japanese companies and a fresh apology from Tokyo. Yoon's outreach boosted tourism and business ties, but there's still lingering resentment in South Korea that Japan failed to reciprocate Seoul's diplomatic concession by addressing historical grievances more sincerely. While advocating for pragmatism and problem-solving in foreign policy, Lee has also long criticized Japan for allegedly clinging to its imperialist past and blamed that for hurting cooperation between the countries. Some experts say the stability of the countries' improved ties could soon be tested, possibly around the Aug. 15 anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II, when Lee is expected to publicly address the nation's painful history with Japan. Some in Seoul want Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to mark the anniversary with a stronger statement of remorse over Japan's wartime past to put bilateral ties on firmer ground. While wartime history will always linger in the background of Seoul-Tokyo relations, Lee and Ishiba may face a more immediate concern: US President Donald Trump's rising tariffs and other America-first trade policies. South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper in an editorial this week called for South Korea and Japan to collaborate immediately on a joint response to Trump's policies, arguing that the proposed US tariffs on automobiles pose similar threats to both countries' trade-dependent economies. The view from Tokyo Ishiba, eager to improve ties with Seoul, has acknowledged Japan's wartime aggression and has shown more empathy to Asian victims than his recent predecessors. His first encounter with Lee seemed positive, despite worries in Japan about South Korea's stance under a liberal leader known for attacks on Japan's wartime past. Lee, in that meeting with Ishiba at the G7, likened the two countries to neighbours sharing the same front yard and called for building a future-oriented relationship that moves beyond their small differences and disagreements. Ishiba and Lee agreed to closely communicate and to cooperate on a range of issues, including North Korea's nuclear and missile development. Under a 1965 normalization treaty, Japan provided $500 million in economic assistance to South Korea, saying all wartime compensation issues were settled. However, historical issues including forced labour and sexual abuse of Korean women during the war have disrupted ties over the decades, while South Korea has become an Asian power and a rival to Japan, and while Tokyo, especially during the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 's rule, has promoted revisionist views. Japan has since offered atonement money twice for the so-called comfort women, an earlier semi-private fund and a second one unilaterally dissolved by former South Korean President Moon Jae-in's liberal government. Things have improved in recent years, and Japan is watching to see whether Lee sticks with his conservative predecessor's more conciliatory diplomacy or returns to the confrontation that marked previous liberal governments. Cooperation between the two sides is more essential than ever to overcome their shared problems such as worsening regional security and Trump's tariffs that have shaken free trade systems, Japan's largest-circulation newspaper Yomiuri said in a recent editorial. At a 60th anniversary reception in Tokyo, Ishiba said that he sees a bright future in the relationship. He expressed hope also for cooperation in common challenges such as low birth rates and declining populations.

TerraPower raises $650 million from backers including Nvidia
TerraPower raises $650 million from backers including Nvidia

Mint

time4 days ago

  • Mint

TerraPower raises $650 million from backers including Nvidia

TerraPower LLC, a nuclear startup founded by billionaire Bill Gates, raised $650 million to help continue development of an advanced reactor project under construction in Wyoming. The funding round included new investors such as NVentures, the venture capital arm of Nvidia Corp., and existing backers Gates and HD Hyundai, a South Korean shipbuilder, according to a statement Wednesday. Nvidia's decision to support the company reflects the growing links between the technology industry, which is clamoring for carbon-free electricity to power data centers and artificial intelligence, and nuclear companies that are pushing to build reactors that can deliver clean electricity around the clock. 'As AI continues to transform industries, nuclear energy is going to become a more vital energy source to help power these capabilities,' Mohamed Siddeek, head of NVentures, said in the statement. TerraPower is developing a 345-megawatt power plant at a Wyoming coal plant that's set to retire. It began construction a year ago on non-nuclear parts of the project, and expects to receive federal approval in 2026 for the reactor. The company did not disclose its valuation or other terms of the fundraise on Wednesday. Interest in nuclear power, seen as a cleaner and more reliable alternative to wind and solar, has surged after a decade of stagnation, supported by rising demand from data centers tapping into the artificial intelligence boom. In 2022, TerraPower had delayed Natrium's launch date by at least two years to 2030, due to a lack of special fuel called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. In October last year, TerraPower and ASP Isotopes reached an agreement to produce HALEU at an undisclosed site. A developer of small nuclear reactors is going public via a special purpose acquisition company led by former Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Officer Shawn Matthews. Terrestrial Energy Inc. has an equity value of $925 million in the deal with blank-check firm HCM II Acquisition Corp., with the combined entity valued at about $1 billion including debt, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. The transaction will provide Terrestrial with $280 million in gross proceeds, including the $230 million from the blank-check trust account and an additional $50 million from a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, at $10 a share to help commercialize its molten salt nuclear reactors, the companies said in the statement. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Terrestrial joins a band of SPAC-funded contenders betting they can make small modular nuclear power more than a quixotic vision of safely splitting atoms to shrink carbon emissions and sate AI's voracious appetite for energy. That group includes Sam Altman-backed Oklo Inc., Ares-backed X-Energy and Fluor Corp.-backed NuScale Power. Startups like TerraPower LLC, founded by Bill Gates, have also joined the fray.

KMC hires 286 portable pumps to flush out storm water from added areas
KMC hires 286 portable pumps to flush out storm water from added areas

Time of India

time4 days ago

  • Time of India

KMC hires 286 portable pumps to flush out storm water from added areas

Kolkata: The KMC sewerage and drainage department has hired 286 portable pumps and kept them ready to save residents of added areas such as Behala, Garden Reach, the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt, Garia and neighbourhoods off EM Bypass from waterlogging during the monsoon. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The department already has 100 such pumps in its possession. According to a civic official, though the sewerage and drainage department was ready to combat waterlogging in some of the waterlogging-prone pockets in the city proper, including Thanthania, Amherst Street, Sukeas Street, Bowbazar, MG Road, CR Avenue, Camac Street and Bhowanipore, the officials were not sure about the fate of the residents in added areas. This is particularly concerning in parts of Behala, Tollygunge and areas off EM Bypass, where there is no underground drainage system and a drainage development project was yet to be completed. "The drainage upgrade project under KEIIP is dragging too much, and there is no hope that we can give the residents relief this monsoon," said a KMC drainage department official. "In such a situation, we have asked our officials in the boroughs to keep portable pumps ready and press them into service in case of a downpour," said a KMC drainage department official. The first major drainage upgrade project for the city's drainage system was taken up by KMC under the Kolkata Environment Improvement Project (KEIP) in 2003. The majority of funds (Rs 1600 crore) from the Asian Development Bank-funded mega project were allocated to develop the drainage system in Behala. However, when the project ended after being delayed for years, the civic engineers found faults with the laying of pipes. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Additionally, several low-lying areas bordering Joka and Maheshtala municipalities were left untouched. This necessitated a second phase of the KEIP drainage upgrade project for Behala. Under the second phase, drainage development work is in progress in areas including Silpara, Sakuntala Park, Sakherbazar, Upen Banerjee Road and parts of James Long Sarani. This work has added to the waterlogging woes, conceded a KMC drainage department official.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store