This post was originally published on this site.
SINGAPORE – More job seekers could soon get better career advice and job matches, as some career coaches are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to recommend jobs aligned with their clients’ skills and interests.
Since its launch in August, the Employment and Employability Institute’s (e2i) Virtual Career Coach (VCC) has helped over 1,000 job seekers in this manner, with more expected to benefit in the future, said Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Desmond Tan on Oct 4.
Mr Tan was speaking at the opening ceremony for e2i’s newest career centre at Our Tampines Hub. e2i is backed by the National Trades Union Congress.
The AI-powered VCC assists e2i career coaches in processing information on jobs, skills and courses, and matching this to job seekers’ career goals, interests and existing skill sets.Â
Previously, coaches had to spend time researching unfamiliar industries and manually looking for suitable jobs for their clients.
The VCC is expected to speed up this process by enabling the coaches to tap a common database of job listings and information from the national jobs bank.
The VCC can also assess whether job seekers are suitable for available jobs by analysing their resumes and Riasec personality profiles. Riasec (Realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional) is a personality profiling tool that helps job seekers understand their personality, strengths and work values so they can better identify suitable career options.
The VCC programme was developed in response to feedback from career coaches, said e2i’s chief executive officer Caryn Lim.
While the VCC currently contains listings from the national jobs bank, e2i hopes to include jobs from more sources in the future.Â
e2i career coach Lim Xiao Yu said that bugs in the programme, such as the delayed inclusion of available job roles into the VCC after they are added to the national jobs bank, have occurred occasionally. These get resolved when coaches report them through a feedback form, she said.
Mr Mohan, a middle-aged job seeker, was among the first 1,000 job seekers to experience VCC-facilitated career coaching when he sought assistance from e2i in August.
Previously a lead project manager at an IT company, he said the job recommendations he received from his career coach were satisfactory. He also received advice on how to improve his resume, and has a job interview lined up next week.
Ms Lim noted that the VCC is most helpful for “direct” tasks like recommending jobs, but career coaches are still needed to consult with clients and help them make decisions.
“If you have those who are still unsure of what they really want, then the counselling and clarity will come from the career coaches,” she said.