4.1. “Occupational affordances” as a conceptual frame to guide sectoral policy interventions Assessing the quality of the different dimensions of occupational affordances may offer a new lens to guide policy-makers on interventions in sectors with high prevalence of non-permanent work. Figure 16 provides our broad assessment of the quality of occupational affordances in the sectors surveyed. Based on this analysis, we note that improving entry-level linkages, access to experts and quality of assignments are three key areas that will help to provide greater occupational affordances for workers in the sectors. In addition, the Adult Education industry suffers from fragmentation that impedes the ease of movement of non-permanent workers in the sector. There are many historical reasons for this, but this analysis suggests that facilitating the development of shared understanding, norms and practices would go a long way towards providing better support for adult educators. For the sectors with low-wage occupations, the analysis suggests that the lack of specialist roles on a non-permanent basis is a major impediment affecting the learning and development of non-permanent workers in these sectors, rather than low-wage jobs being a problem in and of itself. Non-permanent workers are reluctant to enter permanent work in these industries because of the lower daily pay they would get, as well as the more rigid working conditions in permanent work. The options would be to examine the viability of the industry facilitating more specialist work assignments on a non-permanent basis. If this is not viable, redesigning permanent work to make it more attractive to workers would be an alternative, while being cognisant of the workers’ aspirations in terms of higher pay. One option would be an extended work-study scheme where workers are attached to employers over a longer work period, and given increments if they meet a certain set of pre-agreed key performance indicators. Another option, in terms of career facilitation, would be to suggest that these workers take up non-permanent work in sectors with higher occupational affordances such as technical theatre, so that they have the space to develop their trajectory in more meaningful ways.
Developing non-permanent workers in Singapore
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