Singapore is taking a bold leap into the future of work, launching a Careers and Skills Passport (CSP) designed to equip its workforce for rapid technological shifts.

Launched by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), the pioneering initiative is a central pillar of the nation’s strategy. Its core function is to cultivate agility by consolidating individuals’ verified skills and career data.

Powered by AI and machine learning, the system offers personalised recommendations for learning pathways, facilitates efficient job matching, and underpins a national “skills-first” approach to talent management.

Key components of the skills passport

The CSP is meticulously structured around four critical components to ensure a comprehensive representation of an individual’s capabilities and experiences:

Employment section: This segment contains verified data directly sourced from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board and the Ministry of Manpower (MoM), detailing essential information such as employer names, employment periods, and occupations.

Skills section: Providing a dynamic overview, this section includes verified skills acquired through formal certifications and validated by employers. Users are also empowered to augment their profiles by adding skills they have independently acquired.

Academic records: This component integrates verified academic qualifications from the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), encompassing a wide range of institutions.

Professional training records: The final section features verified certifications obtained from the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework and other SSG-funded courses. Users can also input their own certification records there.

Users maintain granular control over their data, choosing precisely which records to share with partnering online job portals, such as Jobstreet and FastJobs, or directly with potential employers through a secure, shareable link. As of April this year, the tool has seen considerable adoption, with 315,000 Singaporeans using it and 4,900 actively sharing their data with prospective employers.

AI and Singapore’s labour landscape

Singapore's labour landscape is undergoing significant transformation, driven by the increasing adoption of AI. Like many advanced economies, Singapore faces the dual challenge of automation impacting existing roles and a growing demand for new skills in a competitive global talent market.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority’s Singapore Digital Economy Report found that the country’s digital economy, which includes AI, accounted for a substantial 17.7% of its GDP in 2023. It sustained the 2022 level, growing at an impressive 11.2% compound annual growth rate from 2018 to 2023 – nearly double the overall GDP growth rate.

The rapid digital expansion means AI is increasingly integrated into the workplace. A KPMG study found that Singaporeans are among the top AI users worldwide with 68% of workers already doing so. The employees cited improved efficiency and effectiveness, cost benefits, and the innovation it enables as key positive changes AI has made in the workplace.

There’s a near-unanimous expectation across the city-state that AI will be an integral part of the worklife of Singaporeans.

Even 95% of employers in Singapore foresee themselves using generative AI tools to streamline or expand their operations until 2029, according to an Amazon study.

These figures suggest a strong belief within Singapore’s professional landscape that generative AI will not only be adopted en masse but will also serve as a powerful catalyst for enhanced performance and operational improvements. HR teams must therefore prepare for this sweeping change before it’s too late.

Maximising Singapore’s skills passport programme

1) Integrate with HR systems

Seamlessly connect CSP data with your existing HR and talent management platforms. This allows for unified data access and more efficient analysis of your workforce capabilities.

2) Embrace skills-first hiring

Move beyond traditional resumes. Update your job descriptions to outline required skills clearly, and train your recruitment teams to assess candidates based on their verified CSP profiles. This broadens your talent pool and ensures a better fit for evolving roles.

3) Personalise upskilling and reskilling

Use the detailed skills data from the CSP to identify specific gaps within your current workforce. Then, offer targeted training and development programmes. This not only enhances your employees’ capabilities but also boosts retention and builds internal talent pipelines.

4) Proactive workforce planning

Leverage the insights from your employees’ CSP data to anticipate future skill needs. By understanding the collective capabilities and aspirations of your team, you can plan for future workforce development and stay ahead of industry shifts.

5) Encourage internal adoption

Promote the active use and updating of CSP profiles among your employees. Highlight how the CSP benefits their career growth, making it easier for them to showcase their abilities and find new opportunities within the organisation.

6) Collaborate with SkillsFuture Singapore

Engage with SSG and provide feedback on the CSP. This collaboration helps ensure the platform continues to evolve and meets the specific needs of various industries.

The AI shift: Reshaping jobs in Singapore

Singapore’s skills passport marks a truly visionary stride towards a dynamic, skills-first economy. However, as with any pioneering initiative of this scale, its journey forward will naturally encounter challenges that must be navigated with care.

Ensuring robust data privacy and security will remain paramount; maintaining user trust in the system's ability to protect sensitive personal and skills data is absolutely crucial. There will also be an ongoing need to ensure the accuracy and currency of information, especially as individuals acquire new skills or as self-declared skills evolve over time.

While initial adoption rates are promising, achieving widespread engagement across all sectors, including small and medium-sized enterprises and diverse demographics, will require sustained effort and clear communication of the CSP's benefits. Furthermore, seamless technical integration with the myriad of existing industry systems and online job portals across different sectors could present complex hurdles.

A critical consideration, too, is mitigating potential biases within the AI algorithms that power recommendations and matching, ensuring fairness and preventing the perpetuation of existing inequalities.

Despite these considerations, the opportunities that lie ahead for Singapore, powered by the CSP, are immense and transformative. This platform has the potential to evolve into an even more sophisticated tool, offering hyper-personalised career guidance that is highly granular and predictive, tailored precisely to individual aspirations and evolving market demands.

On a national level, the aggregate and anonymised data gleaned from the CSP can provide invaluable, real-time intelligence on skill supply and demand. This insight can then directly inform educational policies, workforce development strategies, and broader economic planning.

Beyond Singapore's borders, a standardised and verifiable skills passport could significantly streamline the international recognition of skills, bolstering Singapore's position as a global talent hub and making it easier for skilled individuals to contribute to its economy.

Fundamentally, the CSP is more than just a digital resume–it serves as a foundational blueprint for a dynamic, skills-based future of work. It moves the focus beyond traditional job titles to embrace transferable capabilities, empowering both individuals and the nation to continuously adapt and thrive amidst the accelerating pace of technological change, while reinforcing Singapore's deep commitment to lifelong learning.