Speech at Learning for Life, Advancing with Skills Roadshow
Mr Gan Kim Yong, Acting Minister for Manpower, Vivocity
Mr Zainudin Nordin, Mayor, Central Singapore CDC
Mr Jen Kwong Hwa, Managing Director, Micron Semiconductor
Industry and training partners
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
It gives me great pleasure to join you this afternoon at this Roadshow on ‘Learning for Life, Advancing with Skills'. A good range of employment and training opportunities in the manufacturing, logistics and real estate management industries is being showcased at this event. While the economic outlook in the medium term may be somewhat uncertain, there are still good job and career opportunities in today's labour market.
Employment Outlook
2. Recent statistics released by my Ministry show that in the first half of this year, our economy created 144,600 jobs, higher than the 113,800 jobs created in the same period last year. Unemployment remains low at 2.3 per cent, the same as a year ago. However, we will have to brace ourselves as the global economy slows.
3. On the brighter side, we still have the pipeline of investments which will continue to create jobs for Singaporeans. In manufacturing, Seagate is ramping up its third and latest hard disk media plant. The Seletar Aerospace Park has got off to a “flying start” with a slew of commitments from companies such as Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and ST Aerospace. In petrochemicals, Shell and Exxon Mobil have announced major investments in Singapore, which will come on stream by 2011.
4. There will be jobs created in other sectors too. In the tourism sector, the two integrated resorts will need some 20,000 workers, and generate other spin-offs for our economy. In healthcare, parts of the new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital are expected to be ready in early 2010 and will need more than 1,000 healthcare workers.
Towards a Dynamic and Vibrant Workforce
5. These investments must be seen in the larger context of longer-term restructuring of our economy, towards higher value-added manufacturing and services. They will create jobs that are different from what we have today and they require different skill sets.
6. To take advantage of these opportunities, we need to change our mindsets, and be ready to take up new jobs in new industries. We must be prepared to invest time and effort, to learn new skills, even when we are doing well in our careers. Our workforce must be dynamic and be responsive to economic changes and new challenges.
7. We laid the groundwork to harness the vibrancy and dynamism of our workforce, by setting up the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) 5 years ago in September 2003. WDA's mission is to enhance the employability and competitiveness of our workforce.
From Job Placement to Building an Infrastructure
8. At the time, Singapore was in a midst of a downturn. WDA's focus naturally gravitated towards helping the unemployed, by working with the Community Development Councils and the NTUC to match job seekers to vacancies in the market. WDA was very much seen as a job matching agency then, serving vulnerable workers.
9. But even as WDA and its partners tackled the immediate challenges of the day, it was quietly building up capabilities – establishing contacts with industries, building up the expertise to project manpower demand, developing national skills standards, and building a Continuing Education and Training (CET) infrastructure to help our people to upgrade and acquire new skills.
10. Today, that quiet hard work has paid off. WDA has established a network of Industry Skills and Development Councils, to help it chart the future of manpower development in each economic sector. It has developed national skills frameworks under the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) system for all key sectors, from tourism and retail, to creative and social services, to precision engineering and aerospace. WDA has also collaborated with tripartite partners to build up 22 CET Centres and accredited a network of 300 training providers to deliver training programmes according to national WSQ standards. Our efforts benefitted a broad spectrum of our workforce, young and old, men and women, from rank and file workers to professionals, managers, executives and technicians. These efforts are embodied in the CET Masterplan, which the Prime Minister announced in February this year.
11. This national CET infrastructure is still work-in-progress, but its impact is already discernible and significant today. About 180,000 workers (or 10 per cent of our local workforce) have been certified under WSQ.
12. Under the CET Masterplan, WDA will continue to build on this progress by ramping up the national training capacity, developing the CET profession and reaching out to more workers to help them realize the benefits of lifelong learning. Over time, the training capacity will be progressively ramped up, from today's 20,000 to 80,000 workers in a few years' time. The new framework will ensure better integration of CET and pre-employment education systems, and involve the best private and public providers, including LearningHub, polytechnics, ITE and best-in-class overseas providers. New CET centres in growth areas, such as integrated resorts, spa, logistics, process and digital media will be set up and existing CET Centres will be expanded to meet increased demand. The new Institute for Adult Learning was set up to train trainers and conduct applied research into adult training to improve training quality and outcome.
CET in Manufacturing
13. WDA has been working with many partners to develop CET. In the manufacturing sector, for example, there are over 45 CET programmes and over 6,000 workers have benefited from them.
14. First, the Generic Manufacturing Skills under the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework helps manufacturing workers certify their skills. More than 90 per cent of the trainees have been placed in new jobs, or have been given new job responsibilities after training.
15. WDA is also partnering the Dedicated Pharmaceutical Specialist Engineering Pte Ltd, and the Dublin Institute of Technology Ireland (DIT), to launch a two-year part-time competency-based Bachelor of Science Degree Scholarship. This will help build up a talent pool of pharmaceutical specialists. Graduates can get further credit exemptions to DIT's Master of Science programme.
16. Thirdly, WDA is collaborating with Singapore Polytechnic to roll out a WSQ Diploma programme specialising in Machinery and Systems in October this year. This will help develop higher level specialists to support the evolving needs of the Precision Engineering industry.
17. Lastly, WDA, Kingston University Higher Education Corporation and the Air Transport Training College are working together to train Certifying Technicians and Licensed Aircraft Engineers using Aerospace WSQ as a cornerstone. With this collaboration, existing technicians can look forward to a more efficient and accelerated career upgrading pathway, and benefit from the opportunities in the expanding aerospace industry.
A New Vision Statement
18. With WDA's establishment as an authority in adult learning and CET, the Ministry of Manpower, the WDA Board and its management, have been discussing the adoption of a new vision statement for WDA, to reflect its broader role and bolder aspirations. Today, I am glad to mark the Fifth Anniversary of WDA with a new vision statement:
A Competitive Workforce,
with workers Learning for Life,
and Advancing with Skills
19. This is a vision that reflects our aspiration of building and leveraging a CET infrastructure to create opportunities for our workforce through skills advancement. The first part of the statement, ‘Learning for Life', refers to what we have been advocating in the past, and that which continues to be relevant in the future. The second part of the statement, ‘Advancing with Skills', refers to our strategy of providing workers with opportunities to progress through CET. Besides academic upgrading that is well established in Singapore, we are presenting workers with an alternate advancement pathway, through skills acquisition and upgrading. Finally, ‘a competitive workforce' is what we want to achieve ultimately, to sharpen Singapore's competitiveness, so that we can continue to progress and prosper.
Conclusion
20. It is important for WDA to continue working with various partners to implement its strategy and realise its new vision. Our partners include the union, the CDCs, economic agencies, the training industry, and the polytechnics and ITE. I want to acknowledge the contributions of some of those who are present today. They are NTUC Learninghub, the Electronic Industries Training Centre or ELITC, the Association of Process Industries (ASPRI) and the Singapore Institute of Materials Management.
21. Today's event is an excellent demonstration of WDA's vision – to open up more opportunities for Singaporeans, and help workers learn for life, and advance with skills. Let's continue to work together, to realise our vision.
22. Thank you.