BOSTON Consulting Group (BCG) launched its Rapid & Immersive Skill Enhancement (Rise) programme earlier this year, as part of the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways initiative. The number of applicants was nearly three times the number of available slots, signalling the attractiveness of such programmes.
BCG held the inaugural Rise career fair on Friday, which gave participants opportunities to interact with prospective employers and career advisers. Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was also in attendance to interact with participating companies and prospective graduates.
Said chairman of BCG Singapore, Jeffrey Chua: "We designed and curated the Rise curriculum and programme to meet real market needs. We feel very proud to support the workforce upgrade for Singapore to seize global opportunities, to bridge talent gaps for many companies who have found sourcing of digital talent a challenge, and to support individual trainees who are true lifelong learners to become more employable."
The programme was geared towards participants from professional, managerial, executive and technician (PMET) roles with eight to 10 years of experience. Many of them were from the financial services sector.
To meet the increasing demand for digital talent, the programme focuses on equipping learners with relevant technical skills like coding, programming and data analysis. Other soft skills like story-lining, leadership development and agile growth mindsets were also dovetailed into the curriculum.
The programme was well-received, as 11 per cent of the 1,300 participants currently enrolled have found permanent positions even before graduating, thanks to Rise's job portal that matches students to positions offered by participating companies.
Hackathons and capstone projects also gave students opportunities to connect with partner companies like Shopee, Standard Chartered and Sentosa Development Corporation.
Charlotte Thng, head of human resources, Singapore, Australia and Asean markets at Standard Chartered, said: "Working with government and industry partners like BCG not only provides talent with on-the-job training, but also helps to nurture a pipeline of homegrown techno-bankers for the future."
"This is very much aligned to our commitment to investing for growth, and hire, train and continuously reskill our workforce and build a strong Singapore workforce to ensure future competitiveness," added Ms Thng.
Siti Hadijah Mohammed, who had previously worked in education for almost 10 years, joined Rise to make a mid-career change to digital sales and marketing. She said: "The foundational curriculum of Rise gave me the business essentials and knowledge that I was looking for, and helped me understand the digital enablers and forces that are working to create jobs in the future."
Sourced from The Business Times - written by SamanthaHeo