By Aaron Low

AFTER graduating with a double master's degree in business and commerce from an Australian university, Mr R. Vijayan thought it would be a breeze to land a managerial job in the service sector.

Instead, the 42-year-old, who had worked in the prison service, spent eight months in a futile search.

Turning to the Central Singapore Community Development Council (CDC) for help, he was directed to a course that got him a certificate in customer service last July.

It was this certificate that landed him a job two months later, paying more than $4,000 a month, as an operations manager in a hotel group.

'Ironically, it was the certificate that impressed the employer and showed that I had the skills and aptitude to do the job,' he said yesterday.

Mr Vijayan's case is not unusual, said the Central Singapore CDC's general manager, Ms Agnes Kwek.

More than 90 per cent of the 2,500 job seekers registered with the CDC are classified as being 'not job ready'.

'They may need some training so they can fit jobs in the service sector, where there are still many vacancies, or they may need to change their mindsets about job expectations,' Ms Kwek said.

Such help given to Singaporeans by CDCs was praised by Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong yesterday. Speaking at the end of a tour of the Central CDC, he said he was happy to see how effectively government policies were being carried out by the CDCs.

'The model we developed over the last few years, where the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) works closely with the CDCs, has worked well,' he said.

'We are able to take advantage of WDA programmes and at the same time leverage on the network the CDCs have established in the community.'

He also noted that CDCs were changing the way they help job seekers in response to the economic crisis.

For example, they organise more industry-specific job fairs for target groups, instead of big fairs with all types of jobs.

Mr Gan promised to devote more resources to the CDCs should there be a need to cope with even more job seekers.

'For the time being, I think the resources are adequate. But I've told the CDCs that if they need any more help, do let us know,' he said.

'The Ministry of Manpower and other ministries will work closely with CDCs to make sure they have adequate resources to deal with the downturn.'

The minister was also updated on the trends the Central CDC had observed in the past year from helping job seekers.

Between last December and this January, their numbers on its register jumped from 523 to 849, rising by more than 50 per cent. The CDC also noted a growing proportion of professionals seeking help, from 16 per cent last November to 26 per cent in March.

All these signs point to a 'war' that the CDCs are fighting, said Central Singapore District Mayor Zainudin Nordin.

To cope with the higher demand, the Central CDC has increased manpower by 20 per cent, is opening earlier at 8.30am and closing later at 5.30pm, and has doubled the number of job fairs it organises.

'I think we are doing quite well. This recession is a tougher challenge compared to the previous two,' said Mr Zaiundin, referring to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and 2003 Sars period.

'But we have better weapons, in the form of training capacities and strategies, that place us in a better situation than most other countries.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.