Mr Lui Tuck Yew: Infocomm technology remains a crucial pillar and a strong focus of our economy

Infocomm employment in Singapore grew by 1.3 per cent in 2009 despite the overall contraction in the Singapore economy. This brought the total number of infocomm professionals up to 140,800 in 2009, up from 139,000 the year before, according to the latest Annual Survey on Infocomm Manpower by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The strongest areas of employment growth included software development, digital media and animation, and research and development.

Sharing these findings in his opening address at the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) Annual Dinner and IT Leader Awards 2010 on 5 March 2010, Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said, “Clearly, infocomm technology remains a crucial pillar and a strong focus of our economy, and this bodes well for infocomm professionals as well as those seeking a career in the infocomm industry.”

To sustain Singapore’s infocomm talent pool, the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF) will be updated to cover new and emerging areas such as Data Centre Management, Quality Assurance, and Portfolio Management. Currently, 562 skill sets have been mapped to 250 infocomm positions on the NICF, which has been adopted by companies such as SingTel, CrimsonLogic and Neptune Orient Lines for their internal competency frameworks.

To provide more upgrading opportunities for professionals, four Infocomm Continuing Education and Training Centres (CET Centres) have been jointly appointed by the IDA and the Workforce Development Agency. The CET Centres are aiming to deliver more than 60 courses and train more than 8,000 individuals over three years. More than 1,700 infocomm professionals have already benefited from the 35 NICF courses held at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and the Institute of Systems Science. The fourth centre, the Strategic Technology Management Institute at the National University of Singapore, was launched on 8 March 2010.

To build up a strong pipeline of IT talent, IDA also offers two scholarships – the National Infocomm Scholarship, which supports infocomm studies at the bachelors and masters degree level; and the Integrated Infocomm Scholarship, which supports good “O” level students to embark upon infocomm studies from polytechnic to university. In all, 46 scholarships were awarded last year. “This is encouraging, we need to keep at this pace, and improve on it for a good number of years so that we build strong pillars for the future,” said Mr Lui.