Can transferable skills training solve Singapore's healthcare manpower shortage?

Main challenges in employee training include staff shortages and high workloads and lack of incentives for upskilling.

Investing in transferable skills training emerged as a crucial strategy to address manpower shortages and ensure the delivery of high-quality care.

According to NTUC LearningHub's Industry Insights Report 2024 on Healthcare, the country’s healthcare sector faces a critical shortage of skilled professionals, with nearly nine out of 10 healthcare leaders acknowledging this.

To support healthcare professionals, these healthcare leaders suggested providing more competitive salary and benefit packages (57%), promoting preventive healthcare (41%), streamlining shift schedules (37%), adopting technology to lighten administrative tasks (36%), and providing continuous training opportunities (35%).

Despite acknowledging opportunities for career advancement (66%) and ease of switching roles (75%), they emphasised challenges faced by professionals transitioning within the sector, such as the need for retraining (62%) and lack of transferable skills (49%).

The majority of these healthcare leaders (41% strongly agree, 59% somewhat agree) underscored the importance of ongoing learning and skills development opportunities for career mobility within the sector. 

However, staff shortages and high workloads (71%), lack of incentives for upskilling (59%), and difficulty coordinating training due to shift work (40%), persist as the primary obstacles to facilitating employee training.

The report revealed that healthcare leaders prioritise training in effective client communication (44%), data analytics (42%), and service excellence (33%). 

Additionally, it identified critical core skills or soft skills for healthcare workers, including adaptability (63%), problem-solving (61%), communication (59%), learning agility (55%), and customer orientation (55%).

In terms of hiring, approximately four in five healthcare leaders expressed interest in hiring talent, with healthcare assistants (35%), logistics or operations staff (27%), and community care service workers (17%) being the most sought-after roles. 

Moreover, about 86% are inclined to hire individuals with industry-recognized certifications, despite a lack of experience.

Healthcare leaders also believe technology can alleviate on-site workload by leveraging telemedicine services (64%), automating/streamlining operational processes (63%), and expediting treatment through quicker and more precise diagnosis (58%).  

Additionally, they see benefits in enhancing access and ensuring data consistency through centralised patient health records (62%) and providing access for immobile patients via telemedicine services (55%).