SINGAPORE - A brightly-coloured shipping container outside Punggol 21 Community Club has been turned into a one-stop destination for job seekers and those looking for career advice.
Dubbed the Job Container, the facility was officially launched on Friday (Sept 18) by MPs for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
It will be open on weekdays, and brings together the services of Workforce Singapore's SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centre with Project Success, Singapore's first community-led job placement centre.
The Job Container is meant to be a "safe space" for residents to talk about their career aspirations, said MP Yeo Wan Ling, who oversees the Punggol Shore district.
"Joblessness and retrenchments are very difficult and sensitive topics to talk about, and because of this, I think we need to create opportunities so that people can be very open about needing to seek help," she added.
Ms Yeo was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a job fair in the community club, located in the Punggol Shore area. The one-day fair offered around 1,000 vacancies in industries such as healthcare and food and beverage.
Said MP Shahrael Taha, who is in charge of the Pasir Ris East area: "A lot of residents are working in aerospace or other industries that have been affected by Covid-19. So job fairs like this allow us to bring jobs closer to residents, and hopefully can help residents through these difficult times."
Both MPs launched the Job Container along with Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, Minister of State for Home Affairs and for Sustainability and the Environment Desmond Tan, as well as Punggol West MP Sun Xueling, who is Minister of State for Education and for Social and Family Development.
In November, Ms Yeo's Punggol Shore district will also launch a directory for freelancers called PS Lvbang. It aims to allow freelancers to advertise their services to residents. More details will be released in October.
One Punggol resident at the job fair was Ms Ang Ai Lian, who is looking to make a mid-career switch to the healthcare sector. The 45-year-old decided to take a break from her accounting work a year ago, before volunteering as an operations support associate helping to care for Covid-19 patients at the Singapore Expo.
"I realised I really like the work. Initially, your heart tells you that you want to do something, but you dare not try it because you've never done it before," Ms Ang said. "But right now, I know that this is something I like, and that's why I am here."
