Speech at Max Talent Graduation Ceremony

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Acting Minister for Manpower, APS Lifestyle Gallery

1. Good morning. I am happy to join you here today at the Max Talent graduation ceremony.
2. Let me start by taking stock of our employment situation. Singapore has managed to keep our unemployment rates low in the past few years. As of June 2013, our citizen unemployment rate remained at 3.1%. This is by all accounts a very low level of unemployment. It is not something that happens by chance. It comes about because the economy is doing reasonably well. We are able to create the conditions for which jobs and opportunities are created for our people. And that is something we want to continue to maintain. But as Singapore’s economic restructuring picks up pace, we will see redundancy increase, because of structural changes in the economy. And these redundancies will include Professionals, Managers, and Executives (PMEs).
3. Though unemployment amongst resident PMEs remains still low, we do observe certain trends emerging, and we have shared some of these with you before. It is not unique to Singapore. I recently came back from Sweden and the Netherlands, and I see that these are the same challenges other developed and progressive economies are facing. One of these challenges is that PMEs, especially the mature ones, are becoming more vulnerable to redundancy when businesses restructure, and also when they have to look for employment thereafter. As we all know, the markets continue to evolve, sometimes at ever increasing rates. How do PMES continue to remain relevant in an industry?
4. I have come across retrenched PMEs, whether by correspondence or in person, and I understand the challenges that they face. Many of them are frustrated, and many of them have a deep sense of anxiety, because they are at a stage where they have various obligations to fulfil. They have children who are still in school, who have not graduated yet and have not entered the workforce, and they have various other obligations that they still need to sustain.
5. So, having sustained employment makes a lot of difference to them, and it is not trivial. Even as we consider our unemployment situation and realise that it remains relatively low, for those who are do not have a job, or in the process of looking for a job, it does not matter what the percentage is. To them, they remain 100% unemployed until they find a job. So, it behoves us to do what we can to assist them, and facilitate the process to help them.
   
   Multi-Pronged Approach to Assisting PMEs
6. What more can we do to help our PMEs? Some have said that we should just cut overall foreign worker numbers drastically, so that we compel employers to recruit PMEs, including the mature PMEs. Is that the correct solution? As I mentioned earlier, even countries like Sweden and the Netherlands are facing the same challenge. For example, people in the Netherlands above the age of 55, if they lose their job, they have as low as a 2% probability of finding a new job. It is a function of many things, one of which is job creation, for which we are in a relatively healthy position. And the best solution to unemployment is creating jobs, and to continue to be able to do that. The fact of the matter also is that PMEs are facing challenges not only from Employment Pass (EP) holders, but also from the increasing number of Singaporean graduates entering the workforce every year. Some have asked whether legislation against age discrimination would compel employers to consider them fairly alongside younger graduates. Again, legislation is one approach, but is that necessarily the best approach?
7. As with all things, we all look for the proverbial silver bullet. But at the end of the day, I believe it is about developing a basket of solutions to best address the challenges. Again, I want to emphasise that it is not unique to our society. It is something that many economies are facing, and many older workers and PMEs are facing the world over. So, what are we doing?
8. We have taken concrete steps to help local PMEs. We recently announced the Fair Consideration Framework, which requires employers to consider Singaporeans fairly before hiring foreigners on EP. We are raising the salary threshold for EPs to encourage a more level playing field for Singaporeans. It is not just at the entry level of $3,000 to $3,300. That is an important step. It is part of the restructuring that has taken place previously when we re-jigged the whole EP framework.
9. Ultimately, to achieve a change, it requires a mindset shift. That is something we cannot legislate, but we have to encourage, cajole and provide various incentives. For employers, it does means taking the time to assess candidates, judge them based on their skills and competencies. And certainly, older PMEs bring with them a wealth of experience. For individuals, what it means is recognising that getting a degree does not mean the end of learning. Rather, it marks the start of a lifelong journey of constant upgrading and improvement.
10. The government has been trying to create a facilitative environment for our PMEs to secure good jobs. Besides enhancing our Continuing Education and Training (CET) programmes to enable our PMEs to upgrade their skills and remain relevant, we provide a suite of employment facilitation services to match our PMEs to hiring employers. One of them is Max Talent, a pilot Place-and-Train programme to place our local PMEs into SMEs, which was launched in April 2012.
    
    Update on Max Talent Programme Take-up Rate
11. Today’s Max Talent Graduation Ceremony marks an important milestone in this pilot programme. It is the culmination of our efforts to achieve two objectives: to secure employment for unemployed PMEs, and to enhance the human resource capabilities of participating SMEs in recruiting and managing their newly hired PMEs. To fulfil these objectives, WDA partnered an SME champion – the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) – to jointly manage and promote this scheme to our local job seekers and SMEs.
12. A specially tailored programme like Max Talent provides targeted help for PME job seekers. PMEs enrolled in the programme are required to attend a three-day WDA Talent workshop to pick up or refresh skills essential to working well in SMEs. These include fundamental skills like proactive problem solving, project and performance management, and managing teams. The assistance that Max Talent provides does not end upon the completion of the workshop. ASME continues to provide six months of post-placement support to the hired PMEs and their SME employers through a Talent Resource Kit.
13. The Talent Resource Kit helps PMEs and their supervisors to foster better communications, and offers guidance to PMEs and their supervisors to jointly establish the PMEs’ work goals, performance indicators, and career development roadmaps tailored to individual PMEs. Such progressive HR practices have also enabled SMEs participating in Max Talent to better recruit and retain PME talent. We understand the challenges some SMES face, especially the smaller ones which may not always have the bandwidth to juggle their business at the same time while managing their HR and talent as well as they should. That is where this programme comes in and kicks in, in a big way.
14. I am pleased to share that as of July 2013, the Max Talent programme has benefited more than 530 PMEs, including some 120 mature PMEs, who are employed in good SME jobs across different industries such as services, retail and manufacturing.
15. Mr Alan Chan, 45, is one example. Alan has extensive project management experience under his belt, and was found to be a good fit for a position that Magiclamp Singapore, an IT solutions company, was looking to fill. Alan is today a Business Development Manager at Magiclamp. I understand that Alan frequently applies the skills he picked up from the WDA Talent workshop, especially in setting and achieving goals, as this keeps him focused and reinforces his sense of purpose towards his job. Alan also shared that he highly recommends that SMEs sign-up for the Max Talent programme, because he has seen first-hand that it provides a structured pathway that helps SMEs recruit and retain their employees. I am glad that Max Talent is strongly endorsed by the people it was set-up to support, such as Alan and many others like him.
16. Another SME which has benefited from Max Talent is CAG Construction Pte Ltd, a construction equipment distributor. CAG recently hired Mr Ng Wujie, 29, as a Contracts Manager after it learned that Wujie had the relevant experience handling project contracts. I am told that Wujie said he also finds the Talent Workshop useful in managing priorities and meeting key targets. Wujie is appreciative that his supervisor gives him regular face-time to brainstorm and generate work plans. I also understand that Wujie is receiving a competitive remuneration package similar to what he received in his previous job at an MNC.
    
    Assisting SMEs with Recruitment
17. Through programmes like Max Talent, we hope to help more SMEs with their recruitment process and human resource capabilities. In doing so, it will help correct the misperception among our young graduates, or older graduates and PMEs that SMEs offer a less attractive workplace environment, and have limited career progression pathways. The fact is that there are many local SMEs that are steadily growing, and we encourage and support their efforts. Many are also setting their sights to expand overseas. I urge more SMEs, especially those which find it difficult to hire local PMEs, to tap on Government schemes such as WorkPro and the Enterprise Training Support scheme to provide upgrading opportunities for their employees, develop good HR and management practices tied to training career progression, and make their workplaces more progressive.
18. Working in tandem, we will also explore expanding the channels of help offered to SMEs through Max Talent. ASME’s strong connection with our local SMEs has served the Programme well, and is a critical factor in the encouraging take-up rate by SMEs and PMEs. Moving ahead, WDA will review and refine the programme content and consider extending the Programme to reach out even further to the SME community, and encourage PME sign-ups for the programme. The success of this programme depends a lot on SMEs participating fully and giving input. And it also depends on PMEs giving their input, in terms of how they have gained from the course and how best can we improve it, so that we can be sharper and more effective in providing this support.
    
    Review of CET Masterplan to provide greater support to our industries and workforce
19. While Max Talent and other CET schemes have gone some way towards helping our local PMEs meet their career aspirations, our system cannot remain static. The bankruptcy decline of the Motor City, Detroit, is a stark lesson for all of us. Who would have imagined an entire city declaring itself bankrupt? This reveals the real world that we live in today. If we do not adapt and do not remain relevant, the world will just pass us by. These are the realities of the globalised world today. So we have to actively look and plan ahead, that is what we do in Singapore. It is not just about the here and now which is important, but also how do we stay ahead of the competition. At the end of it, it is not just the competition alone, or being ahead of its own sake. Ultimately, it is about being able to continue to keep our economy strong, and keep it growing, so jobs and opportunities can be created for our people.
20. How do we best handle future challenges? In this regard, the Government will embark on a major review of the CET Masterplan. Our CET is an important part of our whole education and training landscape. As you know, Swee Keat (Minister for Education) is working hard to continue to improve the education system. At the sharp end of the wedge, which is the post-formal education process where CET comes in, this is an area that we have invested significant amount of resources. We believe that as the world changes, it is in the CET realm that we are able to keep our workforce agile and relevant as the world evolves. The current CET Masterplan was launched in 2008 to spur coordinated efforts in CET, with the overall aim of developing a strong CET infrastructure that will encourage workers to embrace lifelong learning, stay relevant and seize opportunities in new growth sectors.
21. The review of the CET Masterplan is timely as we seek to transform our economy and help Singaporeans to fulfil their aspirations at the same time. We also seek to better anticipate some of the future challenges and uncertainties faced by our companies and workforce, so that enhancements to our current CET system can be made ahead of time. As I mentioned earlier, the success of any programme really depends on participants providing feedback to us. For employers, it will help us make sure the courses and training modules are directly relevant to industry and to your businesses. And to those participating as employees, your feedback is important. There are courses that can be improved, that are not quite as relevant, or perhaps can be tweaked in significant ways to make them a lot more relevant.
22. That is where your feedback as employers and employees is tremendously important. Therefore, as we embark on this review of the Masterplan, the participation of the various stakeholders is an important component of that process. We have also gathered some insightful feedback on our CET system through MOM’s Our Singapore Conversation sessions. We will carry out further consultation on the Masterplan in the months ahead, and hopefully be able to share more details towards the end of next year.
    
    Conclusion
23. On this note, I would like to congratulate all the PMEs and SMEs who have found jobs and good employees through Max Talent. I believe there is huge potential for this programme to continue, and we hope that all of us will continue to put in our effort to build on it. Today’s graduation event, for the PMEs who are able to join us today, is testament to the success of the programme in matching PMEs with suitable employers, and training them to adapt and maximise their full capabilities within the SME environment.
24. Thank you.