Why Now Is The Best Time For Women Returning From Career Breaks

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly transformed work for everyone, with flexible workplaces making motherhood, caregiving and career advancement no longer as separate life choices as they used to be.

In addition, it has also opened up more work opportunities for women, with Ministry of Manpower (MOM) data last year showing more working-age women were in jobs, compared with before the pandemic.

In fact, more than 68,000 women have received help from Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute since 2019 to return to work, accounting for almost one in every two job placements by the WSG.

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More women want back in to the workforce

While the common opinion is that most of the 260,000 women (aged 25 to 64) who remain out of the workforce and at home do so because of domestic duties, in fact, only 15% reflect that to be truly the case in surveys.

In order to support the remaining 85% of women to ensure that they can be matched with the right jobs that meet their personal and professional needs, WSG launched a new initiative called “herCareer”, that brings programmes and information for them under a new website.

At the launch in Bedok in June 2022, Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang said: “Some (women) actually may, by choice, want to stay at home to take care of family members, but we think a certain proportion may want to come back (to work) when they feel ready.”

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This was certainly the case for Jacqueline Tok, 47, who was also at the launch. She left her job in 2018 when her company restructured, and then decided to take a longer career break to help her son prepare for his PSLE exams.

She said to Workipedia by MyCareersFuture: “Getting out of our comfort zone is something that most of us find challenging, but this journey (rejoining the workforce) has been amazing. I’ve learnt so much, and I think I’m in a better place now.”

The launch was also held simultaneously with a Career GRIT Walk-in Interview, which provided attendees with a chance to do face-to-face interviews for over 580 jobs, with six employers.

If you haven’t heard, Career GRIT is designed for jobseekers in these job search stages:

Those who haven’t started their job search process
Those actively applying for jobs
Those currently preparing for job interviews
Those with jobs, but looking to cope better

According to Shub Faujdar, the Head of Training for Training and Development at Alcott Global, career activities such as these help women by educating them on what resources are available, as well as acting as a “one-stop shop” to meet employers who can interview them for positions.

“The best part is how the whole process is reduced to just one afternoon on one day, instead of stretching out to weeks,” she lauded.

Shub was a facilitator for two live workshops held at the event about why companies love to hire back-to-work women (or BTWW), as well as proven strategies for a successful career relaunch, which were also available on the Clubhouse app for women to join virtually.

Help for Back-To-Work-Women is here

Jacqueline says that such initiatives like “herCareer” that are targeted towards BTWW like herself are better. She added

Zuria Yusope, 37, agreed, and believes that such programmes are also helpful for women who might prefer to interact one-to-one and with another woman in their career search and journey.

Previously an assistant general manager of a sports broadcasting consultancy, she quit in 2019 to care for her aged mother, and rejoined the workforce this year as a programme manager in the social service sector.

The herCareer initiative is in line with the Singapore government’s white paper on women’s development in the country, which called for a “whole-of-society effort”.

As such, herCareer also showcases the suite of support across government agencies, community and grassroots organisations. It also provides services such as job-matching trials, career conversion training and placement, as well as job search guidance and job attachments.

Zuria concluded: “Overall, I’m very happy with my decision (to rejoin the workforce). I just want to let my fellow women know not to give up, regardless of whatever situation you’re in.

“Just move forward, attend programmes — there are so many out there to help us BTWW!”

To learn more about herCareer click here, and learn more about WSG’s Career GRIT here! To make it easier for you to be updated for future job events, services and advice, don’t forget to bookmark it on your browser!

We’ve also pulled together a list of stories to help if you’re looking to join Jacqueline and Zuria back in the workforce. Best of luck!