04/07/2023

SkillsFuture Singapore Partners Generation to Shed Light on Navigating a Mid-career Transition to the Tech Sector

SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), in collaboration with Generation Singapore, has published the SkillsFuture Jobs-Skills Insights¹– Never Too Late: Navigating a Mid-career Transition to the Tech Sector’ for mid-career workers.

Despite recent tech layoffs, job posting data has shown that demand for tech roles grew by 70% from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023² . This indicates that the Digital Economy continues to present opportunities for job seekers as more sectors continue to pursue digital transformation.

This issue spotlights the persistent high demand for digital skills, and how mid-career workers can upskill to seize these opportunities and move into the tech sector. SSG has identified some job roles that are generally considered “tech-heavy”³, but nevertheless present good opportunities for mid-career switchers. These job roles are in high demand, accounting for 84% of the tech-heavy job postings from 2018 to 2022. The required proficiency levels of digital skills for these job roles are more attainable for mid-career switchers, and non-technical skills, such as Stakeholder Management, Apply Teamwork at Workplace and Project Management, form a large share of the skills required. Examples of such roles include Associate Security Analyst, Incident Investigator, Forensics Investigator, Associate Software Engineer, and Software Engineer.

 For a smoother career transition to the tech sector, mid-careerists are encouraged to:

1. Discover and identify their passions, strengths, and transferable skills, as well as seek guidance from mentors in emerging industries.
2. Research and review job descriptions for the roles they are interested and identify the gaps between their value proposition and the role's desired qualifications. They can also network with industry professionals and even take on freelance projects to experience the requirements of the job role.
3. Adapt to new ways of learning as the traditional instructor-led learning approach is evolving into a hybrid model, where instructors act as facilitators and learners take charge of their own learning.

² This is based on SSG’s analysis of Salaryboard data.   

³ Tech-heavy roles are specialised roles responsible for the development, implementation and maintenance of more complex technological solutions and applications.