For decades, recruitment followed a familiar formula: specify a qualification, ask for several years of relevant experience, shortlist candidates who tick the most boxes, and hire the person who most closely matches the job description.

That formula is changing.

Across Singapore, employers are increasingly looking beyond academic qualifications and paying closer attention to what candidates can actually do.

According to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Job Vacancies 2025 report, academic qualifications were not the main determinant in hiring for 79.6% of job vacancies in 2025, up from 78.8% in 2024. MOM also found that employers are increasingly prioritising skills and competencies, with some reporting benefits such as faster hiring, access to a wider talent pool and better employee performance.

This does not mean qualifications have suddenly become irrelevant.

For professions requiring licences, specialised technical knowledge or regulated credentials, formal qualifications remain essential. Instead, the shift towards skills-based hiring in Singapore reflects a broader change in thinking:

Rather than asking only, “What qualifications does this candidate have?”, employers are increasingly asking, “What can this person do, and what could they learn to do?”

For organisations competing for talent in a rapidly changing economy, that can make a significant difference.

What Is Skills-Based Hiring?

Skills-based hiring, sometimes called skills-first hiring, focuses recruitment decisions on the competencies required to perform a job successfully.

These may include technical capabilities such as data analytics, programming, equipment maintenance or financial modelling, as well as transferable capabilities such as communication, adaptability, problem-solving and collaboration.

Qualifications and experience can still be considered. The difference is that they are evidence of capability rather than automatic filters.

For example, instead of requiring: “Degree in Business with at least five years of experience in a similar role”, an employer might identify the capabilities actually required:

• stakeholder management
• data interpretation
• project coordination
• presentation skills
• knowledge of relevant systems
• ability to solve problems independently

That seemingly small change can significantly alter who qualifies as a potential candidate.

And the shift is already visible in Singapore.

MOM’s 2025 data showed that when employers ranked their top hiring considerations, relevant experience accounted for 48.2% and skills and abilities for 20.1%, compared with 9.4% for academic qualifications.

So how can employers put this approach into practice?

1. Start With the Job, Not the Previous Employee

When someone leaves, one of the easiest recruitment approaches is to reuse their old job description.

But jobs evolve.

Technology changes. Processes become automated. Teams restructure. Customer expectations shift. Responsibilities that mattered three years ago may no longer be as important today.

Before advertising a vacancy, ask:

What does someone actually need to be able to do to succeed in this role today?

Separate the requirements into three categories:

Must-have skills – capabilities required from day one.

Trainable skills – capabilities that a suitable employee could reasonably acquire after joining.

Nice-to-have experience – useful, but not essential.

This helps prevent a job advertisement from becoming a wish list that unintentionally excludes capable candidates.

2. Reconsider Automatic Degree Requirements

Does the position genuinely require a degree? For some roles, the answer will clearly be yes. But for others, a degree requirement may remain in the job description simply because it has always been there.

Removing an unnecessary qualification requirement does not mean lowering hiring standards. It means replacing a broad proxy for ability with more relevant evidence of ability.

A candidate with a diploma, industry certification and several years of hands-on experience may be better suited to a role than someone with a degree but little practical exposure.

Similarly, a mid-career candidate moving from another industry may possess strong transferable capabilities even without the “ideal” educational background.

MOM’s findings reinforce this shift: qualifications were not the main consideration for 70.7% of PMET vacancies and 92.2% of non-PMET vacancies in 2025.

The question employers should therefore ask is not: “Can we remove qualifications from every job?”

It is: “Where are qualifications genuinely necessary, and where are we using them simply because it is convenient?”

53. Hire for Transferable Skills, Not Just Industry Experience

One of the biggest advantages of skills-based recruitment is the ability to recognise capability across industries.

Consider someone who has spent years managing operations in hospitality.

At first glance, that experience may appear unrelated to healthcare, logistics or corporate services. But look deeper and the candidate may have developed valuable skills in:

• managing teams
• resolving customer issues
• scheduling manpower
• working under pressure
• coordinating multiple stakeholders
• meeting service standards

Those capabilities do not disappear when someone changes industries.

This is particularly relevant for mid-career professionals and career switchers who may have extensive experience but struggle to pass traditional screening because their previous job titles do not match the vacancy.

Employers who can identify transferable skills may therefore uncover candidates their competitors overlook.

4. Replace the “Perfect Candidate” Mindset With “Plug-Train-Play”

Many employers understandably want someone who can contribute immediately.

The problem comes when the search becomes too specific: same industry, same position, same systems, same years of experience, same qualifications.

Eventually, the candidate pool becomes extremely small.

MOM has encouraged employers to consider a “plug-train-play” approach instead of expecting every new hire to be immediately “plug-and-play”. The idea is straightforward: hire someone with the right foundation, then provide targeted training for the remaining gaps.

Imagine Candidate A meets 100% of the requirements but has limited interest in learning new responsibilities.

Candidate B meets 75% but demonstrates strong fundamentals, adaptability and motivation to learn.

Who will create more value over the next three years?

The answer will depend on the role, but Candidate B should not automatically be rejected because a few boxes remain unticked.

5. Change the Way Candidates Are Assessed

Skills-based hiring cannot stop at rewriting the job advertisement.

If employers advertise for skills but continue selecting candidates primarily by school, qualification, job title or years of experience, little has actually changed.

Assessment methods should reflect the role. Depending on the position, employers could use:

Work samples to see how candidates approach realistic tasks.

Scenario-based interview questions to understand how they solve problems.

Technical assessments for positions requiring specific expertise.

Structured interviews that ask candidates comparable competency-based questions.

Portfolio reviews for roles where previous work demonstrates capability.

For example, instead of asking: “Have you used this exact software for five years?”, consider asking: “Tell us about a similar system you have used and how you approached learning it.”

The second question can reveal adaptability and learning ability rather than simply measuring familiarity.

6. Look for Potential Alongside Current Capability

Skills-based hiring should not become another rigid checklist.

If employers simply replace “10 qualifications required” with “20 skills required”, the same problem remains.

The strongest hiring decisions often consider three things:

What can this candidate do now?

What transferable skills do they already possess?

How quickly could they develop the remaining capabilities?

That third question is becoming increasingly important as technology changes jobs.

MOM reported that 24.3% of employers experienced skills gaps within their workforce. These gaps contributed to heavier workloads for other employees, difficulties maintaining quality standards, missed business opportunities and challenges adapting to technological change.

Trying to solve every skills gap by finding an external candidate who already possesses every required capability may not always be realistic.

Recruitment and workforce development increasingly need to work together.

Hire for the foundation. Train for the gap. Develop for the future.

7. Build Skills Into Career Development – Not Just Recruitment

Perhaps the biggest misconception about skills-based hiring is that it only affects recruitment. A genuine skills-first organisation also thinks differently about existing employees.

If employees develop new capabilities, can they move internally?

Can someone from operations transition into a project role?

Can a strong individual contributor develop into a manager?

Can an employee whose role is being transformed by automation be reskilled rather than replaced?

Skills-based thinking can therefore support internal mobility, succession planning, retention and workforce transformation.

SkillsFuture Singapore has similarly highlighted employers that integrate skills into recruitment, workplace learning and career progression rather than treating training as a standalone exercise.

For employees, this creates something increasingly valuable: visibility of where their careers can go next.

For employers, it can reduce the tendency to look externally every time a new capability is needed.

Does This Mean Degrees and Experience No Longer Matter?

No – and this distinction is important.

Skills-based hiring is not about ignoring education, experience or professional credentials. It is about giving each of them the appropriate weight for the job.

A qualification may demonstrate technical knowledge. Experience may demonstrate that someone has applied their skills in real situations. A certification may be mandatory for a regulated profession.

But none should automatically substitute for understanding whether a person can perform the work.

For specialised roles, experience remains particularly important. MOM found that some PMET positions continued to be difficult to fill because candidates lacked specialised skills and relevant experience. The proportion of PMET vacancies left unfilled for at least six months increased from 14.4% in 2024 to 16.0% in 2025.

The goal is therefore not skills versus qualifications.

It is skills, experience and qualifications – weighted according to what the job genuinely requires.

The Bigger Question: Are We Hiring for Yesterday’s Job or Tomorrow’s Workforce?

The shift towards skills-based hiring reflects something larger happening in the workplace.

Jobs are changing faster. Employees are moving across functions and industries. Technology is changing the tasks people perform. And organisations increasingly need people who can continue learning rather than simply repeat what they already know.

This makes hiring potential, adaptability and transferable capabilities increasingly valuable.

For employers, there is also a practical advantage.

If you have been advertising the same vacancy repeatedly and struggling to find the “perfect candidate”, the problem may not necessarily be the talent market.

It may be time to reconsider the definition of “perfect”.

Sometimes the right person does not have the exact previous job title. Sometimes they come from another industry. Sometimes they need training in one particular area. And sometimes the strongest hire is the person who can grow into what your organisation needs next.

Finding Skills, Potential and the Right Fit

Moving towards skills-based hiring does not mean making recruitment less selective.

It means becoming more precise about what you are selecting for.

That starts with understanding the role, identifying the capabilities that truly matter and assessing candidates based on evidence rather than assumptions.

For organisations that are already stretched for time or recruiting for specialised positions, this can be challenging. An experienced recruitment partner can help employers refine job requirements, understand current talent availability and identify candidates whose capabilities may not be immediately obvious from a CV.

At The GMP Group, we have been connecting organisations with talent across Singapore and the region for more than three decades. From permanent and contract recruitment to executive search, RPO and workforce solutions, our teams work with employers to look beyond the CV and identify the experience, capabilities and potential behind it.

Because finding the right person is not always about finding someone who has already done the exact same job.

Sometimes, it is about recognising who has the skills to do it – and the potential to do even more.

Build a Workforce That’s Ready for What’s Next

Hiring today is about more than filling vacancies. It’s about finding the right people, building the capabilities your business needs and creating a workforce that can adapt as your organisation grows.

Whether you’re looking to fill critical roles, strengthen your talent pipeline, manage high-volume or project-based hiring, or rethink your overall recruitment strategy, The GMP Group can help. Our recruitment specialists work closely with employers to understand their business needs, workforce challenges and hiring priorities before recommending solutions that make sense for them.

With experience across permanent and contract recruitment, executive search, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), payroll outsourcing and broader HR solutions, we can support your organisation at different stages of its workforce journey.

Ready to strengthen your workforce? Speak with our team to explore how we can support your hiring and workforce needs.