Retraining helps 60-year-old make switch from events management to digital marketing

When most events had to be cancelled after Covid-19 hit in 2020, Mr Manokaran R. Muthuveerappan, then an events manager, was worried about his livelihood.

The 60-year-old, who was in the events industry for about eight years, told The Straits Times yesterday: "I realised Covid-19 was not going anywhere. I was worried about whether my job would still be there in the next few years."

Taking a leap of faith, he left his events management job in August 2020 and joined IT consulting firm Unisoft Infotech as a digital marketing manager the next month.

"This was something alien to me," he said.

Unisoft recommended him for Workforce Singapore's Career Conversion Programme, where he picked up data analytics and Web development skills. Mr Manokaran was hired and then trained on the job.

In other cases, mid-career workers may be on an attach-and-train arrangement.

Under it, employers are strongly encouraged to offer employment to trainees who have met training and performance requirements.

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said in his Budget speech that company attachments for mid-career workers will be a "permanent feature of our training and placement ecosystem", such as through the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme. It allows workers to upskill while receiving a training allowance.

Before his new job, Mr Manokaran was not on any social media or e-commerce platforms.

Now, he makes Facebook and Instagram posts, puts up product listings on Lazada and Shopee, and manages the website of PetMall, which is owned by Unisoft's subsidiary Uniforce.

"To anybody my age, I'd say, if you need to take a plunge to start a new job, do it," he said.

Mr Wong also announced that about $100 million will be set aside to support the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to scale up Company Training Committees (CTCs), where unions and employers develop plans to upskill workers.

Cleaning firm Speco is among more than 800 companies where CTCs have been formed by NTUC.

Speco's chief executive and founder Benjamin Chua, 34, said that since forming its CTC in 2017 with the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees' Union, the firm has been planning courses to upskill workers in infection control and crisis management.

"It all came into play when Covid-19 hit. We need to make quick decisions when dealing with a crisis, and this is the level of thinking we want to impart to our workers, so they are able to move into higher-level jobs," he said.