1,000 professionals to be hired, re-skilled to support Singapore 5G rollout: IMDA
SINGAPORE — A thousand professionals will be hired and re-skilled to support Singapore’s 5G rollout, said the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Tuesday (29 September).
The move comes as part of a partnership between the IMDA and local mobile network operators (MNOs), with 30 per cent of the jobs being new roles. The remainder will be filled by telecom professionals who will have their skills upgraded in the areas of 5G network, cybersecurity and solution engineering in order to “futureproof” their jobs.
IMDA said in a news release that the demand for 5G professionals is expected to grow as Singapore’s 5G rollout gathers momentum and more enterprises participate in the ecosystem.
“Talent development is the next critical phase of our investment in 5G. This effort extends Singapore’s momentum in 5G following our investment in building infrastructure capabilities,” said IMDA chief executive Lew Chuen Hong.
“We have worked with the local MNOs to unlock the potential of 5G for these 1,000 professionals and will continue to do so to create good jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans,” he added.
Noting the need to have a strong pipeline of 5G talent, Lew said the IMDA is leading efforts to appoint credible training partners and that the first wave of training will begin at end-2020 with the MNOs’ 5G professionals.
Under the TechSkills Accelerator Initiative, the IMDA has set up 5G Workforce Transformation Committees (WTCs) with the MNOs to oversee the development of their 5G workforce capabilities.
The authority will also be appointing a consortium that includes the National University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic as the 5G and Telecoms Programme Manager.
They will help aggregate hiring and training requirements from the WTCs and other players in the 5G ecosystem, so as to develop quality training that allows Singaporeans to take on 5G jobs.
“The plan is to work with the industry and equip a total of 5,000 professionals over the next 3 years to develop a strong, 5G skilled workforce,” said IMDA.
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