How employees can stay competitive in Singapore’s job market 

Self-management, Influence, and Creative Thinking are the top core skills that employees in Singapore should focus on developing to remain relevant in a volatile employment landscape. 

On the other end of the scale, Global Perspective, Building Inclusivity, and Developing People were deemed as the least important skills, according to the Critical Core Skills Profiling survey conducted by the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), which covered more than 2,000 employed Singapore residents aged between 20 and 70. 

The survey focused on the Critical Core Skills (CCS) framework identified by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), which consists of 16 soft skills grouped into three clusters, namely Thinking Critically, Interacting with Others, and Staying Relevant.  

The Thinking Critically cluster includes creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, sense making, and transdisciplinary thinking. The Interacting with Others cluster includes building inclusivity, collaboration, communication, customer orientation, developing people, and influence. Lastly, the Staying Relevant cluster includes adaptability, digital fluency, global perspective, learning agility, and self-management.  

READ: Nurturing diverse and inclusive leadership in Singapore

Dr Bi Xiaofang, Senior Researcher of IAL, said, “As Singapore adopts a dynamic posture in lifelong learning, it is critical that we look into the development of critical core skills to support our workforce transformation. These soft skills are essential in helping the workforce remain adaptable, agile, and competitive amid changing work environments. While technical skills are important, core skills play a huge role in career development and business growth and therefore cannot be overlooked.”