New Jobs Nearby @ CDC initiative to bring employment opportunities closer to home

Following Prime Minister’s National Day Rally announcement that the Community Development Councils (CDCs) will spearhead a new job matching initiative, the South West CDC will be the first to kickstart Jobs Nearby @ CDC (社理会职业配对计划), while it is progressively rolled out to other districts. This programme is designed to bridge the last-mile gap in connecting residents to suitable local jobs near their homes. Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Mayor of South West District, shared details of Jobs Nearby @ CDC at Hillview CC on 31 August 2025.

2            Under the new initiative, South West CDC will (i) deploy Job Ambassadors who will actively connect with local businesses to aggregate jobs, (ii) outreach to jobseekers to build their confidence and job search capabilities and (iii) connect jobseekers to jobs by closing the last mile of job matching services.

3        South West Job Ambassadors will start by holding “job clinics” at five Community Centres/Clubs (CCs) across South West District. These ambassadors will provide personalised support and coordinate interviews with employers, where possible, through teleconference, during these clinics.

4        Job Ambassadors will also seek to engage employers to redesign jobs or introduce adjustments to meet the needs of residents, for example, those who need to balance working with caregiving duties. Please refer to Annex A for the list of CCs and respective appointment schedules of the Job Ambassadors.

5        Beyond job matching, Job Ambassadors will adopt a holistic, inclusive approach to understanding every resident’s circumstances, such as caregiving responsibilities or medical appointments. This may involve arranging accessible venues and facilitating virtual interviews where needed. Jobseekers who require additional assistance with career coaching, interview and resume preparation, and skills training and upgrading will be linked to relevant partners.

6        Building on the strong foundation of the South West Community Job Fairs, South West CDC will also step up its efforts to outreach to local businesses to source for jobs, in partnership with goodjobs.com.sg ↗ (opens in new tab), a social enterprise. Job Ambassadors will be trained to engage heartland merchants; guide them in defining clear job criteria; list vacancies; and schedule interviews, as well as applying job matching techniques to better guide residents towards suitable employment opportunities. Under this programme, the CDC seeks to offer residents multi-sector roles (full-time, part-time and flexible) in addition to opportunities in essential services and operational sectors like retail, F&B, education, healthcare, logistics and Infocomm Technology.

7        “Leveraging our extensive network, connections and partnerships, the CDCs will not only aggregate suitable jobs but also help jobseekers build their skills, and match and connect them in-person or virtually with suitable employers nearby. We will have dedicated Job Ambassadors providing jobseekers with personalised job search and placement assistance, as well as access to the local district job bank and network of job clinics. This will ease their job search journey, especially for those who face difficulties in navigating the job market and re-entering the workforce. SMEs and heartland businesses can also tap into our job bank and portal, and get support in job redesign to meet their manpower needs. Our goal is to leave no one behind. The customised search and placement support, links and upgrading resources delivered by Jobs Nearby will help residents overcome challenges, boost their job opportunities and enable them to realise their aspirations,” said Mayor Low.

8            Residents can register online at go.gov.sg/jobsnearbysouthwestcdc ↗ (opens in new tab) or make appointments at their nearest CCs, where Job Ambassadors will follow up to arrange interviews with potential employers. ​Employers and heartland merchants may contact South West CDC or visit any of the five CCs to list available roles. The programme will be refined based on feedback from jobseekers, partners and Job Ambassadors before expanding nationwide across all five CDCs.

9            Photos for Jobs Nearby @ CDC may be downloaded from the following link ↗ (opens in new tab).