SINGAPORE – Madam Ong Geok Hua, 63, has been a housewife for over 40 years but now wishes to join the workforce.

She is one of many potential employees in the food and beverage and retail industries who benefited from pre-scheduled interviews introduced by FastJobs. The online job portal held its first Jobs & Learning Fest in partnership with Training Vision Institute on Tuesday (July 9).

“I like that I can just walk in and get a reply immediately – it’s much easier than having to apply for jobs online,” she said.

Following the announcement of upcoming foreign worker quota cuts, the employment fair focused on retail and food and beverage, two of “the most labour-intensive industries” as highlighted by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat during the Budget 2019 speech in February.

Over two days, beginning on Monday, the fair in the heart of Bedok Town Square brought together more than 30 prospective employers in the the retail and food and beverage industries including KFC, McDonald’s, Don Don Donki, Haidilao, Levi’s, Cheers and many others.

The jobs available ranged from baristas and service crew to supervisors.

More than 1,000 potential employees were selected from a pool of applicants on FastJobs, who were then pre-scheduled for interviews with their prospective employers.

The online-to-offline experience is a change from the conventional style of job fairs.

On the first day, employers held more than 600 interviews with pre-scheduled and walk-in candidates.

“Job seekers usually have to wait for employers to respond, but this pre-scheduling allows online applicants to meet up with the employers face-to-face – the marrying of online and offline engagements increases the possibility of the engagement of jobs,” said Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, mayor of the South East district, who officiated at the event on Tuesday.

“I hope more private and public sector employers will work with FastJobs in future instalments of this effort as we reduce the anxiety of job seekers in a period of economic uncertainty that we are entering,” he added.

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