TRAINING OF OLDER WORKERS

TRAINING OF OLDER WORKERS: 15.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the breakdown of workers trained in 2008 by age group, gender, educational profile and race; (b) whether he will provide an assessment of employers' support for the training of older workers; and (c) whether there was any research done to assess the effectiveness of training in helping older workers to improve their employability, career prospects and earning power.

The Minister for Manpower (Mr Gan Kim Yong): Mr Speaker, Sir, mature workers over the age of 40 years old comprised more than half the 80,000 local workers who underwent Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) training in 2008. The gender distribution of trainees was fairly equal with females taking up slightly more than half the training places. About two-thirds of the trainees possessed secondary and below education, while the remaining one-third had post-secondary education. About two-thirds of the trainees were Chinese, Malays made up one-fifth, with the rest of the trainees Indians and other races.

Employers have shown support in the training of mature workers. Approximately half of the workers sent for training by employers were mature workers. Take for example Robinsons' group, a well-known retailer and a strong believer in people development through training. Robinsons has been very supportive of the Retail WSQ programme. As an in-house approved training organisation (ATO), they have developed two Retail WSQ modules called "The Service Ambassador" and made it compulsory for all frontline operations staff to attend. Apart from this, Robinsons also organised the Retail WSQ programme Certificate in Retail Operations conducted by the Singapore Institute for Retail Studies (SIRS). In all, Robinsons had taken up 938

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training places in year 2009, of which, about half, 408 were taken up by mature workers.

The Adult Training Survey conducted in 2008 by my Ministry showed that older workers had benefited from training in different ways. For example, 60% of employed workers aged 50-64 who underwent training over the 12 months ending June 2008 reported that the training had enabled them to be more productive at work, comparable to the average of 58% for all workers who underwent training. Forty-two percent of these older workers felt that they were able to deliver better service, higher than the average of 38% across all ages. Older workers also indicated that training had enabled them to retain their job or to obtain a permanent job.

A case in point is Ms Chandriga d/o Krishnasamy. Ms Chandriga, a mature worker, was working as a part-time security officer earning about $300 a month when she registered with the Central CDC in January 2009. As she had an interest in cooking, the CDC supported her training in Workplace Skills courses under the Employability Skills System (ESS) followed by the Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) in Food Production conducted by At-Sunrice. Ms Chandriga completed the course in May 2009 and is now employed full-time in a Japanese restaurant, earning about $1,200 per month. She is a good example of how age is never a barrier to learning new skills and moving into better jobs.

I would encourage companies to support the training of all their workers regardless of age. This is an important strategy for us to continue to enhance our productivity and competitiveness.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: I think the statistics and figures are really heartening.

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It shows that the older workers are very willing to go for training and the companies that have sent them for the training are truly commendable and also it shows that they have benefited from it. What I would like to ask the Minister is despite this, older workers continue to raise concerns that they face obstacles in getting employment, therefore what more can we do in view of the fact that they are flexible and prepared to go for training. One of the common complaints raised by employers is they are inflexible, they are not prepared to go for training, they are not productive but the figures the Minister has cited show otherwise, what more can we do to remove the obstacles to employment of older workers?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, Sir, employment of older workers is a very important issue and Members will know we have announced in this House before that we are going to introduce re-employment legislation by 2012, that will require employers to offer re-employment opportunities for all workers who reach the age of 62. This is one important step towards enhancing the employment of older workers. If older workers were to be employed effectively, the employers must continue to provide training and upgrading for these older workers so that their skills can remain relevant to the industries that we are moving into. From the Government's point of view, we will continue to work with our tripartite partners, through our tripartite workgroups, on the implementation of re-employment to reach out to companies even ahead of the introduction of the re-employment legislation; to encourage companies to be early adopters of these re-employment practices. We will also provide funding and help through our Advantage! scheme to help companies adopt these practices, including providing training for older workers before they reach retirement. We also provide counselling, help and support for these older workers so that they are able to

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adjust to post retirement, re-employment jobs. Because under re-employment, they may not be doing the same job. They may be doing something quite different from what they used to do and therefore training and preparation is part and parcel of the preparation for this re-employment. We will continue to do more together with our tripartite partners to reach out through our various network including Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), Singapore Business Federation (SBF) as well as the Association for Small and Medium Enterprises to reach out to companies and employers to put in place re-employment practices as well as a framework for training and upgrading for our mature workers.

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