MEASURES TO ASSIST DISPLACED PMETS IN FINDING NEW JOBS

MEASURES TO ASSIST DISPLACED PMETS IN FINDING NEW JOBS: 16.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: to ask the Minister for Manpower if he would provide (i) an update on the measures that are in place to assist professional, managerial, executive and technical staff to upgrade their capabilities as well as in finding new jobs for those who have been displaced due to restructuring or retrenchments; and (ii) the number of people who have benefited from such schemes for the past three years.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Lee Yi Shyan) (for the Minister for Manpower): Sir, the training and upgrading of Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) remain an integral part of our CET Masterplan. There are currently some 300 courses suitable for PMETs funded by WDA. In the first nine months of 2010, about 46,000 PMETs have undergone WSQ training.

We have also helped about 3,500 PMETs through our Professional Conversion Programmes to switch to new growth sectors. Today we have close to 50 conversion programmes in a variety of professions such as preschool teachers, aircraft engineers and occupational therapists.

Unemployed PMETs can also approach our Career Centres at the CDCs and e2i

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for help with job placement and training. About 8,200 job placements were successfully made for PMETs through our Career Centres over the past three years. WDA is setting up an online career services portal later this year which will feature e-profiling tools for individuals, WSQ training listings, job vacancies as well as integrated labour market information on industries. This will further help workers with their search for training and employment opportunities.

In line with the Economic Strategies Committee’s recommendation, we are reaching out to more PMETs to deepen their areas of expertise and to broaden their knowledge of horizontal skills. For example, WDA is rolling out WSQ courses in Business Management skills to provide PMETs with skill sets such as Strategy Planning and Implementation and Business Continuity Management. More funded courses targeted at PMETs in different sectors, including green manufacturing, clinical trials, aerospace, precision engineering, adult training, etc, have also been rolled out. We will continue to fine-tune our training and career programmes to serve the needs of our PMETs.

Mr Speaker: Mdm Halimah, you have two minutes left.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: There have been concerns expressed that older PMETs are finding it more difficult to get jobs and the oft-cited reason is that it could be because they are being displaced by foreigners. Could I have the Minister of State's comments on that, please?

Mr Lee Yi Shyan: Sir, with the rapidly changing industry structure in the economy, I think it will work for everyone if we take training seriously and acquire the habit of life-long learning, and this applies to younger workers, older workers in different sectors of the economy. I think this attitude should help our people

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adjust to the new environment. So, under the CET master plan, we have plans to ramp up our current training capacity for PMETs to about 250,000 in 2015, and this a five-fold increase in about five years.

As we make available more training places, we will also provide learning opportunities, both for upgrading vertically as well as to switch over to new industries. As I mentioned in my speech earlier, there will be other services such as counselling and EQ-type of training that will help older workers to either switch to a new job or to make them more rounded and more desirable as employees.

2.58 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question time.