S’pore employers are moving towards skills-based hiring
The Ministry of Manpower released its 2025 jobs report on Mar 20, and the numbers tell a story that would have seemed improbable just a decade ago.
Academic qualifications were not the main determinant in hiring for 79.6% of job vacancies last year, up from 78.8% in 2024 and 74.9% in 2023. The movement is slow enough to miss if you’re not looking, but steady enough to reshape who gets hired in Singapore.
Employers who have made the shift to skills-based hiring report faster recruitment, access to a broader talent pool, and improved employee performance.
Specifically, the change is taking hold in software development, data analytics, and AI-enabled roles across technology, finance, and engineering—the very positions where Singapore is concentrating its growth, and can see some of the highest pay.
A shift driven by tech giants
This movement did not begin with Singaporean startups going out of the ordinary to see beyond academic qualifications. It actually started with multinational corporations that had the data and scale to test what actually predicted job performance.
Between 2017 and 2022, the share of Google job postings requiring a college degree dropped from 93% to 77%, according to analysis by the Burning Glass Institute.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin noted in early 2026 that the company hires “tons of people who don’t have bachelor’s degrees.” They would rather employ individuals who “just figure things out on their own in some weird corner.”
Google isn’t alone in this approach.
IBM built an apprenticeship program explicitly marketed with the tagline “No Degree? No Problem!” in 2017. It went even further and stripped bachelor’s degree requirements from half of its job openings in 2021.
Today, IBM’s share of United States hires without degrees approaches 20%. The company has proven that capability can precede credentials—and that the door opens wider when employers look at what candidates can do, not where they studied.
Firms in S’pore are starting to follow, particularly in the age of AI
Now, firms in Singapore across finance, logistics, and retail are starting to follow.
Beyond academic degrees, companies now look for curiosity, problem-solving, and the ability to learn. This is skills-based hiring—and it’s becoming the default, particularly in the age of artificial intelligence.
More companies are adopting AI into digital workflows, and the tech is rewriting what “entry-level” and “job-ready” mean.
A Sept 2025 report from Morgan Stanley predicts that AI could impact 90% of occupations to some extent. This shift means hiring teams must focus on candidates whose skills align with long-term company goals, many of which will increasingly involve AI.
Thus, what matters is not what someone learned five years ago, but their capacity to learn what is needed five years from now.
Singaporeans are increasingly embracing this mindset, with growing numbers tapping into lifelong learning initiatives like SkillsFuture to stay relevant in a rapidly changing job market.
Over 606,000 Singaporeans tapped into SkillsFuture-supported training in 2025, up from 555,000 in 2024. Of these, 458,000 used their SkillsFuture Credits—a sharp increase from 260,000 the year before.
Nearly 123,000 mid-career individuals specifically chose courses designed to boost employability, up from 112,000 in 2024. These are not hobbyists killing time, but workers betting that skills, not credentials, will be the currency of the next decade.
The results suggest they are not wrong. 73% of respondents to SkillsFuture surveys reported that training improved their work performance, up from 69% in 2024. Moreover, two in three respondents attributed career advancements directly to their courses.
The door is still there, but it is no longer the only way in
It’s no longer about where you went to school. The pathway to hiring has become more flexible, as seen from how a portfolio can open doors that a transcript cannot.
But here comes the uncomfortable reality: Singapore’s education system and its labour market are running on slightly different timelines.
The system still sorts students by qualifications. The market increasingly sorts them by capabilities. The firms now following, in finance, logistics, and retail, are playing catch-up in a game where the rules are still being written.
But that doesn’t mean your degree is useless—it’s just insufficient, as nearly 80% of job vacancies don’t consider your educational qualification when hiring.
What you can do is starting to matter more than what you studied. The workers who understand this distinction—and who invest accordingly in skills that demonstrably transfer to the work itself—are the ones who will define the next decade of Singapore’s economy.
The door is still there, but it is no longer the only way in.
- Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
Also Read: GDP is growing—so why does it feel like there are “no jobs everywhere” in Singapore?
