TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: 9.

Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim asked the Minister for Manpower in light of the Integrated Resorts project, whether the Minister can inform the House of Singapore's talent development process.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Manpower (Mr Hawazi Daipi) (for the Minister for Manpower): Sir, tourism employment grew by an average of 6.6% per year from 157,000 workers in 2004 to more than 178,000 workers in 2006. This growth momentum is expected to remain strong in the coming years, given the numerous tourism projects in the pipeline, including the two IRs, Singapore Flyer and the F1 Grand Prix.

The two IRs alone are expected to generate some 20,000 jobs in the tourism industry. Of these, only some will be new trades. Many new jobs will be filled by workers in existing services sectors, eg, managers and housekeeping; workers from hotels; waiters and chefs from restaurants; cashiers from banks; and security personnel from the uniformed services and security industry. Even car mechanics may be hired as the theme parks will need ride mechanics to repair, maintain and inspect the rides.

MOM, STB and WDA are working closely with the two IR operators to understand their manpower needs and formulate targeted strategies, especially in those areas where new service vocations are needed. Both IR operators indicated that the key attributes they require are a strong service mindset and good service skills - meaning that, foremost, they require prospective applicants to have these generic service traits rather than specific skill sets, which can be added later on. This is exactly what WDA is aiming to develop in our services workforce. WDA is collaborating with key industry players to develop a set of service excellence standards, called the

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Service Excellence WSQ. These are highly portable skills, required by practically all service trades - from tour guides to croupiers, waiters, retail assistants and even security guards. WDA will launch these programmes at a later date. WDA, SPRING and STB will also continue to raise awareness amongst Singaporeans of the importance of good service through the Go-the-Extra-Mile for Service (GEMS) Movement.

The industry will also require graduates trained in tourism-related fields. The post-secondary educational institutes (PSEIs) have thus increased their intake for tourism-related disciplines, alongside the introduction of new tourism-related courses, such as culinary and resort and event management. For 2007 academic year, the intake for tourism-related courses at the university, polytechnic and ITE level has been increased to around 3,000

places, up from 2,000 places in the previous year.

Besides introducing diplomas and undergraduate courses in tourism-related fields, we are also upgrading the skills of existing workers to prepare them for the new tourism jobs. Since last year, WDA has put in place the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) system in the various tourism subsectors to train and accord adult workers with nationally recognised qualifications. To deliver WSQ training, WDA has also set up various WSQ training providers in culinary, retail, hospitality, conventions and exhibitions. These efforts, together with the IRs' in-house training, will allow us to ramp up training quickly and prepare workers to take up the new job opportunities in the tourism industry.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast): Sir, I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary:

(1) In view of the fact that the jobs in these sectors are not exportable, ie, we

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are going to depend very much on Singaporeans to do these jobs, and the very heartening news that the places in the tertiary institutions have increased from 2,000 to 3,000, I would like to know what is the percentage of the places that are going to Singaporeans versus foreign students?

(2) In what other ways are we doing to actually persuade and convince Singaporeans to go into these sectors?

Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, I do not have the information on the first part of the question. I think the hon. Member can submit another PQ to get the answer that she wants. As to encouraging Singaporeans to be more open to work in the tourism-related industry, much has been done by WDA, STB and other agencies together to encourage Singaporeans to be more open and to be attracted to the services sector. But the key point is also in training students in our schools in the various vocations and professional areas related to tourism as well as to train existing workers in the services sector so that if they need to work in direct tourism-related activities, they would be in a better position to do so.

Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim (Marine Parade): Sir, related to the question asked by Mdm Ho, I would like to ask, based on the current talent development process, whether there will be a sufficient number of students or graduates that will be able to take up the posts when the IRs are ready, and what kind of posts will the majority of Singaporeans take up when the IRs are completed.

Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, as I explained in my reply, WDA, STB and other agencies have been working with our educational institutions to open up more places to students in tourism-related studies. Already, 3,000 students this year have been admitted to such courses, up from 2,000 the previous year. There are many

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jobs which Singaporeans can take up in the tourism-related activities, including in the two IRs. They can work as dealers, table supervisors, cashiers, F&B servers, cooks and chefs, and so on. There are many job opportunities that they can fill. But, of course, we also need to complement with foreign workers. Apart from the educational institutions training future workers, the companies have been working with WDA and other agencies to train their workers in various types of services activities. This is to ensure that when tourism activities become even more vibrant, our workers would be better placed to take up better jobs and better-paying jobs.