In conjunction with the Singapore Maritime Week 2021, Advisory Singapore (CLG) Ltd and Singapore Maritime Foundation (SMF) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), expressing both parties’ intent to collaborate as partners to support youth development in Singapore and encourage more students to pursue careers in the maritime industry.
Through the MOU, Advisory and SMF will collaborate on careers-related programming for students to learn more about opportunities in the maritime space, as well as profile working professionals in various occupations across the industry to shed light on the types of jobs available.
“Since our founding in 2016, Advisory has remained firm in the belief that we must raise awareness of critical industries and futures trends – from aerospace to advanced manufacturing, food security to cybersecurity – with our students and youth” commented Mock Yi Jun, Co-Founder & President, Advisory. “The maritime industry plays a vital role in Singapore’s economy, and Advisory looks forward to contributing to attracting more students to join the sector. Whether through our industry panels or by profiling professionals in various occupations across the maritime sector; we look forward to working closely with SMF to bridge the gap between the maritime industry and the classroom for students of all walks of life.”
Talent attraction efforts among the younger generations have faced obstacles typically centered around misperceptions of the industry. This is often a result of a lack of exposure and understanding of industry developments and evolutions.
“As a private sector-led body seeking to develop and promote Singapore as an International Maritime Centre, SMF has led various initiatives to support Maritime Singapore’s talent attraction efforts. These include the MaritimeONE Scholarship Programme and the establishment of the Maritime Singapore Connect (MSC) Office,” said Ms Tan Beng Tee, Executive Director, SMF. “Partnering with Advisory allows us to tap into a wide audience of students and work together to achieve our shared aim of supporting youth with a passion to join the maritime industry.”
SMF and its partners have invested considerable efforts to change perceptions via events aimed at education and awareness, an objective that will be furthered by the MOU. As one of the first steps following the MOU, Advisory will be including information pertaining to these events and other related resources in its newsletters distributed among schools and youth groups such as Mendaki and SINDA.
Talent development was recently identified as a key pillar of the maritime sector by Senior Minister of State for Transport and Foreign Affairs, Mr Chee Hong Tat. Speaking at SMF’s New Year Conversations 2021 in January, Minister Chee stated that the digitalisation of the industry would lead to a greater diversity of maritime careers, and that having a sustainable pipeline of talent is essential to the industry’s long-term success.
