Today we are looking at smart city career trends in Singapore that are affecting the construction industry and the built environment. Urban centres across the world are working hard to transform into smart cities, and Singapore is doing it better and faster than many others. The city-state’s progress has had a huge impact on jobs across a wide range of industries, creating new roles and opportunities, as well as challenges.
The New Approach
The smart city concept is built on the idea of deploying advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things in urban spaces to make them better places to live.
Smart cities make use of digital technology and huge amounts of data to improve their decision-making processes and their inhabitants’ quality of life. This approach enables them to build a granular picture of what is happening in the city in real-time, forecast changes, optimise resources, and create new solutions to urban problems.
Intelligent cities reduce energy usage, improve traffic congestion, and provide better public services and an all-round healthier environment.
Technological Transformation
The key technologies cities are deploying in their quest to become smarter are artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, the Internet of Things, and lightning-fast 5G networks, all of those significantly influencing smart city career trends in Singapore.
The application of these to construction and the built environment in Singapore, and the principles that underpin the smart city concept, have fuelled a rise in sustainable and innovative building practices significantly.
One impact that city’s smartness has had on the job market, is that smarter cities are able to better attract high-level talent, and therefore are better able to compete for foreign expertise. Not only that, but smart cities are also nicer places to live, which helps these urban centres retain home-grown talent. When the quality of life deteriorates in a city, it can often experience a ‘brain-drain’ as people look for improved living conditions.
Smart Singapore
As a densely populated city, Singapore is making the optimal use of its land resources through making its buildings smarter. A smart building integrates various digital processes and technology to create a facility that is safe, efficient to run, and is responsive to the needs of its occupants.
Singapore’s firms are world-leaders in smart buildings, and these firms provide the choicest roles globally in many areas.
One of the reasons the Lion City has been so successful is that the government has implemented a whole-nation Building a Smart Nation plan that focuses on three elements: digital government, digital economy and digital society.
Last year was the third year in a row Singapore topped the world’s smartest city index, which is published annually by Switzerland’s Institute of Management Development business school. The index assesses how smart 118 countries are. The city’s success is largely due to policy initiatives at the national and city level, covering the likes of education, digital government services, and transportation.
This reflects the progress Singapore has made across all aspects of building a smart city, and points to the city-state’s bright future as an advanced construction hub. This solid foundation and growth underpin high levels of construction and property-related job security when it comes to roles relating to smart cities. Also, as an advanced construction hub, Singapore is a great place to build up experience working with the newest and most sophisticated technologies, and it boasts a much wider set of roles than you’d find in cities that aren’t so smart.
Future-proofing is becoming an increasingly key consideration in career planning as many areas of the economy are being automated. However, though some observers forecast that automation will take over many construction and property jobs, it’s more likely that humans will work alongside robots and AI in the built environment.
Smart City Career Trends in Singapore
Workers in the built environment space are, like workers across the world, experiencing the biggest transformation of the economy since perhaps mechanisation. And for anyone looking for career growth opportunities in an exciting and fast-developing space, then smart city built environments provide these in spades.
As well as opportunities, smart city career trends in Singapore present challenges. For example, technology, practices and processes are changing so fast, it’s hard to envision what a construction or property role will look like in even five years’ time. Creating a well-thought career plan based on thorough research, including forecasts of where experts think your industry will be in five or even 10 years, is prudent. With one eye on future trends, workers can improve their skill set so they stay current as we progress through the digital revolution.
Take proptech careers, for instance. Its implementation is at a nascent stage today. But it’s likely that it will grow rapidly, and penetrate most areas of the built environment, as smart city career trends in Singapore gradually become reality.
If you want to discuss your career perspectives in smart city space across Asia and Australia, get in touch with our recruiters for a no-obligation chat.
