New ministerial council for productivity and CET set up

Ministerial, tripartite council to galvanise the nation to improve national productivity, encourage skills upgrading and develop a comprehensive system for continuing education and training

The new National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC) has been set up to galvanise the nation to improve national productivity, encourage skills upgrading and develop a comprehensive system for continuing education and training. The council is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, and comprises of members from unions and the private and public sectors. The NPCEC will transform Singapore, through its tripartite efforts, into a productivity-led economy.

The council will focus on improving productivity at individual , enterprise and sectoral levels. The council’s public communications efforts mirrors the council’s working structure to raise public awareness and call the entire nation to action to improve national productivity and embrace continuous learning and skills upgrading. At the enterprise and sectoral levels, tripartite efforts will center on innovation, enhancing competitiveness and improving processes. Both sector-specific and broad-based programmes will be put in place to help companies improve their top-of-line offerings, expand their markets, raise innovation capacity and streamline their work processes. At the individual level, the emphasis is on upgrading workers with relevant skills to meet market demands.

Work groups are formed for 12 priority sectors which have the most potential for productivity improvements or would contribute the most impact to national productivity. The work groups are working with the industry associations, companies to study and develop sector-specific strategies to raise productivity. To support the national productivity drive, research and benchmarking capabilities for productivity will also be developed. The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) will lead an initiative to help raise productivity of low wage workers across various sectors. A comprehensive, first-class national Continuing Education and Training (CET) system will be developed to instill a culture of life-long learning and continous upgrading so that workers can be more productive and enjoy sustained employability in Singapore.