Quality Jobs for Increasing Number of Graduates

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what has been done and put in place so far to ensure that Singaporean university graduates will get quality and fulfilling jobs upon graduation in view of the Government increasing the percentage of graduates for each cohort from 25% to 40%.

The Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Lim Hng Kiang): Mdm Speaker, the Government adopts a two-pronged approach in its efforts to help our university graduates get good jobs. First, we keep our economy competitive and seek to capitalise on new opportunities in and beyond our region. We do this by growing knowledge-intensive industries that will provide good jobs, and also by pursuing sustained, productivity-driven growth in key sectors of our economy such as manufacturing, financial and business services. This allows our economy to grow amidst a challenging global environment and to create higher-skilled jobs for Singaporeans.

Let me illustrate how this strategy is implemented in manufacturing. As we all know, manufacturing remains a vital part of our economy, providing more than half a million jobs while contributing about a fifth of our GDP. To build up our industry capabilities in advanced manufacturing, we are helping businesses to adopt and leverage on new technologies in areas such as Additive Manufacturing and Robotics. This will transform the way our companies operate to create new growth and business opportunities, as well as diverse jobs that provide good career development potential for Singaporean graduates. These jobs will require deep skills and multi-disciplinary knowledge, and the ability to synthesise the two. One example is a manufacturing operations design specialist, someone who needs to be able to design the manufacturing process for new products, rather than just implement an existing procedure.

The second prong of our approach is to invest heavily in equipping Singaporeans with the skills to take on the jobs that we are creating. Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) works with Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to identify the current and future skillsets required and design education and training programmes to equip Singaporeans with these skills. For example, our Institutes of Higher Learning have industry engagement platforms to ensure that their curricula and learning outcomes are mapped closely to the skills and capabilities required by industry. The SkillsFuture Council will also work with industry partners to develop Sectoral Manpower Strategies to identify future skills and set out strategies for developing these skills in our workforce.

The expansion of our publicly funded university cohort participation rate to 40% by 2020 has been designed to place an emphasis on applied degree pathways to create a diverse pool of graduate talent to meet the changing needs of our economy. We will continue to keep our economy competitive by pushing on with restructuring and our efforts to create good jobs. We will also continue to invest in education and training, including creating pathways for Singaporeans to upgrade their skills. However, it is equally important for Singaporeans to take ownership of their own career development and ensure that they develop the right skills and experience to make use of all these opportunities that are emerging.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Pasir Ris-Punggol): I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. Will the Ministry also look at the aspirations of Singaporeans, especially the young? Will the Ministry make efforts to look for jobs that meet these aspirations?

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Our approach is to create a competitive economy that creates the jobs that meet the aspirations of Singaporeans but, at the same time, we work under certain constraints. For example, we cannot have an economy that is, say, 50% financial services sector because 50% of our young Singaporeans want to work in the financial services sector.

We need a diverse economy and that diverse economy will include the various sectors that we already have built up competencies in and that we can continue to be competitive.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang): Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister; for this 40% of graduates – does it take into account those who attend the private institutions and part-time degree courses, courses that the workforce may take on its own?

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: The 40% is the cohort participation rate in our publicly funded educational institutions. Today, if you look at our workforce, overall, about one-third are already graduates. But if you look at the young workforce, those below 30 years in age, almost 50% are already degree holders. So, the publicly funded cohort participation rate today is around 30%. But Singaporeans, particularly our Polytechnic diploma holders, aspire to be graduates and they go on to take courses on their own.

Similarly, as the Government's publicly funded cohort participation rate goes up to 40%, we can expect that they will be supplemented by others who will take up courses in private institutions. And, therefore, in our planning we expect the cohort participation rate for the young workforce to be much higher than 50%.

Assoc Prof Randolph Tan (Nominated Member): Mdm Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister for Trade and Industry for a clarification on whether there are any significant difficulties with the fact that in advanced manufacturing, for example, which he referred to, the preparation time that is needed to induct graduates into the workforce in those areas can be quite substantial. During the course of the preparation of graduates, the needs of the industry may have changed and may have advanced, how significant are these challenges in the adjustment between the two different streams – the demand for graduates on one hand in specific areas, and the supply on the other?

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Of course, we do not indulge in state planning like in the Soviet Union but we try to create the supply in anticipation of our demand. With the Economic Development Board (EDB) attracting a constant pipeline – a regular pipeline of investments – we have some reasonable anticipation or idea of what jobs are needed. This is then fed back to our educational institutions and also in career counselling of the students so that we prepare the workforce for it. More specifically, before every company sets up its plant, EDB will have a dialogue with the company to see how they would grow their workforce and recruit the workers as the plant comes into operation. And many times, the company would train the workers in anticipation of their start-up, so we try to marry the process. But as the Member has rightly pointed out, this is a huge challenge and there will always be some mismatch along the way, but we try our best.

1.30 pm

Mdm Speaker: Order. End of Question Time.

[ Pursuant to Standing Order No. 22(3) Written Answers to Question Nos. 17 and 19 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix*. Question No. 18 has been postponed to the sitting of Parliament on 30 January 2015. ]