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Written Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo Minister for Manpower to Parliamentary Question on verbal test for safety courses

Workplace safety and health

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1283 OF 2018 FOR THE SITTING ON 6 AUGUST 2018

QUESTION NO. 945 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) what percentage of Singaporeans who attended mandatory workplace safety courses in the last year took verbal tests instead of written tests; and (b) whether the Ministry will allow workers to apply for the verbal test option themselves if they have low educational qualifications.

Answer

  1. Written tests for mandatory workplace safety courses are available in eight languages, so that language proficiency is not an obstacle to safety training. 48 locals, comprising 0.4% of those who attended mandatory workplace safety training in 2017 took verbal, rather than written tests. Workers who face difficulty in taking a written test can already apply to the Workplace Safety and Health Council for the verbal test option. There is no need for them to have first attempted a written test, before applying to be tested verbally.