www.biipmi.com MICA (P) 116 / 05 / 2012 May 13 / June 13 Issue #10
Interview with biipmi 3 Things I Should Know Before Creating My Portfolio The Hour-Glass Economy -
Is Time Running Out for PMETs?
Personalised Make - Up
Model Amelia W. from Look Talents (a sub-division of Carrie Models International) Makeup and hair by Madaline D. Tan from Carrie Academy International Pte Ltd Photographed by Richard Chen
A Publication on Employability for PMEs by PMEs
HOW did this idea start? In 2011, a group of individuals who are passionate about employability wanted to make a distinctive online employability enhancement tool. Collectively, they have seen how the (in)ability to gain, retain, retrain and/or regain one’s employment has affected many new job applicants, professionals, managers, and executives alike. Thus, biipmi Pte Ltd have researched extensively into this complex concept of employability, and have developed a distinctive approach towards enhancing a person’s lifelong employability.
HOW is this different from other social networking or job-matching sites? Though both provide the same idea of helping to find jobs and employees, we branch out further from there. For job seekers, we provide guidance on individual level to help organise one’s resume as well as provide a “clique” option for like- minded people to gather together to form a group where they can share ideas and experiences. We emphasize on this idea of social employability, to use one’s social network as a resource. Lastly, we include the option to express one’s current interests or career/ freelance/learning plans as we feel this is important as well in job searching.
HOW does this system work/help? biipmi revolves around our four main products. 1.Online employability platform.->A platform to aid in organising and documenting lifelong learning outcomes and experiences. It helps in forming specific resumes or serves as personal branding. 2.Content and information channel.->Enhance employability via vast content offering, keeping people updated to latest news on employability curated by professionals. 3. PME(Professional, Managerial, Executive) Magazine.-> Specifically targeted towards PMEs to help them better appreciate the idea of investing into lifelong learning for lifelong employability.
biipmi is an online employability platform job/employee searching. For individuals or job s and document their experiences and reflections This can help them to brand themselves and prepa to always be ready to find a job. For Employers, it employees from a pool of organised resumes.
WHO are you targeting? We are encouraging anyone to join us!
4.Talent Capital Enhancement System(TaCES). -> A comprehensive offline consultancy and training programme to equip individuals with valuable mindset change, skills, knowledge and tools to enhance their Lifelong Employability. The itemized solutions include:
For companies, we are reaching out to explain our concept of lifelong employability to widen their viewpoint and support us. In addition, large corporations can use our system to better understand the career needs of their employees like the interest level in provision of courses.
• • • • • • • •
For institutions, we are reaching out to schools from secondary to tertiary. We wish to give people a head start in planning their future careers, especially with regards to resume planning. Starting early, students can record down all kinds of lessons learnt and experiences gained from school activities which may assist them in future. Institutions can also create accounts within the plaform to offer targeted courses to the users in biipmi.com.
Image enhancement masterclass Employability: the art of being employable Skills Alignment Profiling Professional Make Over Resume Enhancement Portfolio Enhancement Video Resume biipmi.com Subscription
WHAT are the key benefits? There are 2 types of users: Job Seekers and Employers. HOW do I join? Do I need to pay? As a basic user, your account is FREE. (Some of the more elaborated features like the advanced filters will require the user to join as a premium/power user at a subscription fee to enjoy more benefits as compared to basic users.)
For Job Seekers: 1. Organise your learning and experiences in a general resume. Then create specific resumes/portfolios that highlight your talents and experience for your career progression/advancement. 2. Create a customised profile to make it easier for employers to find you. You can also highlight your career, freelance or learning plans here to show your interests in certain areas. 3. Join “cliques� to expand networks and find more contacts, be it clients or like-minded people to share opinions/advice and to brand yourself within this network. "This is termed social employability." 4. Make searches easier by using specific filters to pinpoint job and course opportunities. For Employers: 1. Greater ease in filtering through the resumes to find a good employee. Employers only need to specify requirements for who they are looking for and our system will help filter out the best matches. From there the company can go through these online resume/portfolios or even conduct simple interview with candidates.
m(www.biipmi.com) to help searchers, it helps to organise s as they take part in activities. are their resumes and portfolios allows them to search for their WHAT do I have to do? We are providing an opportunity to ease your job searching by helping you to form a stronger personal branding. We would like you to make the best of this opportunity, to try out the system for yourself and benefit yourself.
WHO is involved/ are you working with / are you supported by? We are a Pte Ltd company incorporated in Singapore. You can certainly find out more through biipmi channel (biipmi.net)
Where can I find out more? Check out our site at biipmi.com or blogsite at biipmi.net to find out more.
3 Things I Should Know Before Creating My Portfolio Article by Anfernee
Do I need a portfolio? “I am not a designer, why should I keep a portfolio?”
A portfolio is basically a support
document that is used to support what your specific resume claims. It demonstrates what is important at particular points in time – your achievements, reflections on learning and, potentially, a rich and rounded picture of abilities, aspirations and ambitions which might be useful for your personal branding, development, career advancement/transition. End of the day, a portfolio is a powerful branding tool that documents all your work-related talents and accomplishments. Here are a few ways one can use a portfolio:
Recruitment processes A portfolio assists job applicants to contextualize and understand their own developments in terms of skills, knowledge and attributes. Portfolios can also help enhance the quality of job applications, linking and supporting the authenticity of a person’s resume. Tangible examples of your skills and abilities are powerful weapons! Continual Education and Training (CET) A portfolio can be used to showcase a more detailed view of evidence for professional accreditation purposes, as well as to identify both short and long-term career development needs. Recognition of prior learning (RPL) A portfolio can be used as a process of collecting evidence of personal achievements for formal RPL documentation. Skills, knowledge, abilities and achievements for a particular competency can be compiled in a central repository, aligned with the specific skill sets recognised by authorities (for example), making the RPL evidence collection process simpler and more efficient.
How to start creating a portfolio? Make sure it is formatted professionally!
Make it attractive and include titles, headings and images that are attractive to the eyes. Include graphic images such as photos, maps, charts or other visual aids. You should start developing your portfolio by first doing a self-assessment (seriously). Evaluate what you have to offer and which item is most crucial in telling the recruiter that you are the best person for the job. Link this portfolio to your resume to support your claims in a more structured and detailed manner. You should decide which skills and experiences you would most like the interviewer to see. To create a physical portfolio, collect everything that you want to include in your portfolio and print everything out. Then organize it into sections to create the table of contents. Then put it all together and insert the materials in the binder in the correct tabs. Proofread the portfolio carefully and review it with a friend or family member to get their feedback. Remember not to clutter your portfolio and your message. Make sure that you keep formatting consistent throughout the portfolio.
“If you don't have much work experience —most students don't— you'll need to mine your schoolwork, volunteer work, and hobbies for evidence of the relevant skills you know you have. For example, if you organized for a campus freshmen orientation camp, include some pictures or documents you might have collected.” To create a portfolio in biipmi.com, on the other hand, is a walk in the park. Just imagine that you need folders (called Category in biipmi.com) for ease of sorting and filing in biipmi.com. In this folder(s) you have many pages, which are your means of indicating significant projects/phases of your life that you want to document. All you need is to create a page, upload pictures, videos or documents you think might be useful, attach a brief description and some personal reflection, and ‘Submit’. You can also link your portfolio to your resume entries to support your specific resumes.
How to use your portfolio? In an interview, do mention to the interviewer that you brought
along some materials or samples of your work for review. Use it to demonstrate your skills and abilities that you are promoting in the interview. Don’t push it too much but if they look interested and want to see it, break it out! This gives you a great way to present yourself and show work samples as a demonstration. If you do not get to share the contents of your portfolio at all during a particular interview, given whatever circumstances, you can still use your portfolio to prepare for an interview. Reviewing the contents of your portfolio before an interview should provide you with fresh examples that you can draw from during the course of your interview. To use your portfolio in biipmi.com is something you have already done when you first created the Category and linking it to a specific resume entry. All you need to do is to attach a specific resume to a job application and that’s it!
The Hour-Glass Economy -
Is Time Running Out for PMETs?
Redundancy of PMEs
In the latest report “Redundancy and Re-entry into Employment – 2012” released by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in April 2013, a phenomenon can be observed to be forming in Singapore. PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) in the services industries (retail, financial, professional services) are becoming more vulnerable to redundancy and subsequent retrenchments or early release from employment contracts.
This phenomenon has been happening in the US and Europe for the past five years, and some economists have termed this as hollowing out of the middle-class due to the effects of digital taylorism. What exactly is digital taylorism and what are the implications for our economy and rapidly changing demography?
Anderson Tan is the Director of biipmi pte ltd. He has a distinction in MA in Lifelong Learning from Institute of Education, as well M. Eng and 1st Class Hon. Degree from NUS.
He is a career coach, an adult educator, and an entrepreneur. He can be contacted at anderson@biipmi.com.
Digital Taylorism Taylorism is a style of management whereby complex production processes are systemized, simplified and standardized, allowing different workers to work on parts of the same product rather than on the whole product. This theory was first developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor beginning in the 1880s, when the industrial revolution took roots. Taylorism accounts for the massive productivity gains in manufacturing through creation of tools to deal with the simplified tasks efficiently, and also the efficient use of raw materials. Taylorism also accounts for the massive job losses in production facilities when automations replace the lower-skilled mechanical work. If one were to think that taylorism only affects repetitive mechanical work, it would be bewildering to know that digital taylorism is posing an even greater risk to the knowledge jobs that so many employees of modern economies are aspiring to go into. With rapid advances in information and communication technologies, many knowledge workers are finding their jobs being replaced with softwares. MIT economist and researcher Andrew MacAfee warns that routine cognitive workers, such as office secretaries and librarians, would be most at risk, as their jobs could be easily replaced by productivity softwares or even Google search! How about some other types of cognitive work such as medical diagnostic services or even paralegal services offered by highly skilled PMEs? With digital taylorism, such services are also not being spared either – as long as the services can be digitized or codified, they can be digitally outsourced to lower cost countries where similar services can be procured at lower costs. Phillip Brown, distinguished research professor in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University; and Hugh Lauder, professor of education and political economy at the University of Bath, argued in their book “The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs and Incomes�, that globalisation of talents has created a dual auction for high skills at low cost. Highly competent graduates residing in India and China would be willing to do jobs at a fraction of the wages as those in developed economies such as US or Singapore. And with the advent of affordable 3-D printing, the threats to highly skilled jobs offered by middle-class workers can only get stronger.
Hourglass Economy
What this means is that such middle-class wages in developed countries will face downward pressures into lower-paying service sector jobs. Of course, some of these middle-wage workers will be able to successfully upgrade their skills or knowledge to be able to command even higher wages by harnessing the powers of such innovations. Another MIT economist, David Autor, termed this polarisation as the ‘hourglass economy’, whereby there are more job opportunities at the top and (mostly) bottom of the income spectrum. Singapore’s working population will not be spared of the effects of digital taylorism. Traditional human capital theory advocates that higher education leads to higher wages; that learning equals earning. Also, theory says that human capital is a direct function of population size, education level, and health of the population. Over the past four decades, Singapore’s demographics have changed significantly in tandem with this theory – the population size has more than doubled in 1980 to 2010, from 2.4 million to 5.1 million; and those with tertiary education (PMETs) increased many folds (refer Chart 2).
The real good wages
The squeezing of the middle class
More high-end jobs are rapidly been pushed down to the bottom due to digital taylorism
Chart 2: Comparison of educational demography of Singapore in 1980 and 2010
Projections by Prof. Wolfgang Lutz, the Founding Director of the newly established Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, modeled that by 2030, Singapore’s PMET population will increase to about 70% of the national population (Chart 3).
Chart 3: Educational demography of Singapore in 2030
With digital taylorism hollowing out middle-class jobs and PMET-level jobs that can be digitized and outsourced, the challenges that PMETs are faced with are issues of concern. With the increasing PMET population coupled with the squeeze on PMET jobs, and the shortening of knowledge and business cycles, it is not surprising that redundancy of PMETs will become more common. If more PMETs are being squeezed down into the lower end of the job and wage spectrum, under-employment and job dissatisfaction will increase, potentially leading to greater social tensions. How then should PMETs handle the hour-glass economy?
Surviving the Hourglass Economy a) Enhancing PMET skills value PMETs must move away from simply desiring to possess more knowledge-based qualifications, to acquiring marketable skills that can be valued for their economic output, as well as non-routine cognitive skills and also high value human-related services. Such marketable skills could include entrepreneurial skills (e.g. products and services creation), creative skills (e.g. product design), system integration skills (e.g. social-IT integration), as well as marketing and social media skills, whereby such skills are highly transferrable between industries, and not easily subjected to the forces of digital taylorism. Beyond these personal competencies, PMETs should also be mindful of how their personal circumstances can actually have an impact on which end of the hour-glass they might end up with. We have seen highly qualified and skilled PMETs, because of the need to shoulder the role of care-giving of their loved ones, been squeezed down into the lower end of the income spectrum. b) Strengthening socio-economic enablers Other than the individual PMET propelling upwards, the government too plays a critical role in the survival of the PMETs. The government has to continually provide and support the conditions for new businesses to flourish, and provide the bridges for PMETs to extend their services to beyond the shores of Singapore. No amount of education or skills upgrading is sufficient or relevant if there are simply not enough quality jobs to absorb the PMETs. Furthermore, more elaborate yet accessible social structures and systems have to be in place to enable the PMETs to be released of their encumbrances of supporting an ageing population. This is particularly important as more PMETs might have to move beyond the shores of Singapore, leaving behind their loved ones in the care of the social systems, as they eke out new job opportunities overseas. c) Establishing transitional supports Furthermore, with the shortening knowledge and business cycles, the possibilities of PMEs experiencing disruptions in their employment will become more common. The need for skills upgrading to stay valuable might also disrupt their income streams. There might therefore be a need to have certain schemes to support the PMEs during such periods of disruptions known as involuntary unemployment. The Economic Society of Singapore (ESS) has proposed a wage and training insurance scheme that can help to cushion certain periods of income loss or volatility and defray costs of training of the PMETs. Conclusion Tackling the effects of the hourglass economy requires more than just the PMETs bettering themselves. There should be a gamut of social support and even security systems. So, is the time running out for PMETs? As long as PMETs are willing to evolve to remain valuable, and governments are forward-looking in strengthening socio-economic enablers, there will always be new opportunities.
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ake-up, like diamonds, is a girl’s best friend. It can transform you to a ‘beautiful swan’ or make you look like a drag queen. With so many different types of looks, it can be confusing for one to understand what the best is; and the common question is “I have no idea how to put on make-up”. In all my classes, there is never a lack of make-up enthusiast where they would watch tutorials online, magazine or anywhere that can curb their thirst for knowledge or rather feed their artistic side. However 100% of the ladies whom I have trained never knew there is so much more to make-up than just applying it. Everyone is so keen to see how it is done but no one understands the reason why it is done in such a specific technique. Make-up, just like any other art, requires basic theoretical knowledge on the various facial features, skin type, skin conditions, contra-indications, make-up type, make-up tools and the range of make-up, followed by the basic skills that not necessarily all possess. In the art of make-up, one must first understand the facial features as that affects what kind of technique we need to apply; for instance, a person with an oval face shape is long and has a softer jaw line compared to someone with a rectangular face shape where the jaw line is more angular. For the ovals, the make-up that is necessary to be applied is the blusher that is swept across the cheek bones. Lipstick of a slightly bolder colour is also important, all to balance out the facial shape and takes the attention away from the length of the face. As for eyes, there are at least 11 different types of eye features that make-up experts need to know. Two of the most common eye features here in Singapore is having monolids and single lids. In monolids, the make-up is the simplest by first applying a highlighting base eye shadow focusing on the brow bone with colors such as beige, off white or ivory. The next step is to apply a medium shade of eye shadow which is most appropriate for work over the entire eyelid (from lash line till the socket area). Now eyeliner differs on various eyes. For instance, a downturned eye will require a lift at the end of the lids and that creates an illusion that the eyes are lifted instead of focusing on the droopy lids. Someone with deep-set eyes should use a pencil liner that looks more natural by lining the lash line instead of a liquid liner which can be starker. Finally finish the eye make-up with mascara to make the eyes appear bigger and more open. When it comes to work make-up, we should stick to simplicity. Day make-up is much lighter and work make-up is in-between an evening make-up and day make-up. As ladies, we can use make-up to our advantage at work, for instance, wearing a bolder lipstick such as red may come across as sultry but to others as a confident and powerful individual. Dark circles is one problem not only women face; however with as simple as a yellow or an orange based concealer, it can freshen your eyes and hide the shadows. Perhaps the next time before you put on make-up, look into the mirror and observe what your eye features, nose shape, face shape, lip shape, eye-brow shape, skin type and skin tone are. Knowing these details, you can use make-up to your advantage to enhance your features.
Article contributed by Madaline D. from Carrie Academy International If you would like to find out more about professional grooming courses offered by Carrie Academy, simply consult our experts at Carrie Academy International. Please refer to the centre spread for details.
For more information on colour theory, please enquire on the ‘Maintain Professional Image + Apply Colour Theory’ course. (Courses are funded for Singaporeans and PRs) at w w w . c a r r i e a c a d e m y . c o m
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About biipmi (branding individualised interactive portfolios through marketing innovations) biipmi bridges the gap between employers’ expectations and employees’ aspirations by focusing on personal professional branding. How it all started? In 2011, a small group of individuals who are passionate about employability set out to build the distinctive online employability enhancement tool. Collectively, we have seen how the (in)ability to gain, retain, or regain one’s employment has affected many new job applicants, professionals, managers, and executives alike. We have researched extensively into this complex concept of employability, and we have developed our distinctive approach towards lifelong employability. For those who care about, and willing to invest in, their employability, we believe we have the products and services for you. For everyone else, we urge you to start making time to understand the true meaning of employability. And reflect on its impact and implications on your future.
“Take the first step to this lifelong journey of a thousand challenges”
The move towards Employability In this modern era, potential employers don’t just look at resumes and interviews; they look deeper into everything - your social cliques, your ability to organize, reflect and showcase your lifelong learning outcomes, your possible contributions to the organization, and just about anything that shows how you portray yourself to the world. Employees need to shift their focus from maintaining employment to enhancing employability. This means they need relevant and highly usable knowledge and skills to move self-sufficiently within the labour market. Please email to ask@biipmi.com for more information Facebook: facebook.com/biipmi Twitter: twitter.com/biipmi Google+: gplus.to/biipmi
Resume, Portfolio, Networking, Market
biipmi provides users with a cloud-based
structured and innovative way of documenting their lifelong learning outcomes and work experiences from learning institutions through retirement. This is to facilitate formal, informal and non-formal learning, thereafter empowering users with the tools to brand themselves through marketing innovations. biipmi.com allows individuals to customize: • Profiles for employers to find you • Career, freelance and learning plans for latest offerings • Specific filters to pin-point job & course opportunities • Specific resumes and portfolios for career progression and advancement • Specific professional networks for social employability
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Talent Capital Enhancement System (TaCES) A resume summarizes all your work experience, education, and related facts and activities since the word resume comes from the French for "summary". More importantly, a resume's job is to make it really easy for a reviewer to read and understand that information. So your job is to do all the work for the reviewer. That is critical! By doing this, your resume becomes a marketing document. Its job is to position you to get your "right fit" employment. So is your resume working for you? Do you look at your resume as a form of investment towards your overall employability value or do you only use it when you need to find a job? How can you bring out the best in yourself and present yourself to the world? If you are good at what you do, do invest your resume with us at biipmi.com because the top employers are looking for super achievers like yourself every day. Investing with biipmi.com is effortless. All you need to do is to key in your achievements and experiences or even upload your resume. We will lead you through our Talent Capital Enhancement System (TaCES) and you will see substantial return on your investment!
So is your resume working for you?
Invest your resume with biipmi. We enhance your employability value through our Talent Capital Enhancement System, giving you substantial return on investment. YOUR INVESTMENT
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TaCES I • Image enhancement master class • Employability: the art of being employable • Skills Alignment Profiling • Professional Make Over • Resume Enhancement (Includes resume consultancy) • Portfolio Enhancement (If applicable) • Video Resume • biipmi.com Subscription (Power User Package) TaCES 2 • Professional Branding (Online) TaCES 3 • Market Visibility BRANDED YOU
ENHANCED EMPLOYABILITY: YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT 05