JOINT INDUSTRIAL TRAINING CENTRES

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Yeo Toon Chia asked the Minister for Trade and Industry and Minister for Health what type of industrial training will be provided at the different Joint Industrial Training Centres, and whether any of these Centres will be located at Ang Mo Kio New Town.

The Minister for Trade and Industry and Minister for Health (Mr Goh Chok Tong): Mr Speaker, Sir, at present, the Economic Development Board runs four Joint Industrial Training Centres. They are:

(1) Tata-Government Training Centre at Chin Bee Drive, Jurong;

(2) Philips-Government Training Centre at Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim, Jurong;

(3) Rollei-Government Training Centre at Kallang Junction: and

(4) Japan-Singapore Training Centre at Jalan Bukit Merah. These centres provide a four-year apprenticeship training in the following 11 trades designed to meet the needs of industrial firms using advanced skills and technology:-

(1) Precision Metal Machinery

(2) Precision Mechanics

(3) Precision Optics

(4) Tool and Die Making

(5) Tool and Die Making (Plastic Moulds)

(6) Auto-Lathe Setting

(7) Consumer Electronics

(8) Industrial Electronics

(9) Electrical Engineering

(10) Instrumentation and Control

(11) Industrial Machinery Maintenance.

All trainees are required to undergo two years of in-centre training in one of the four training centres and another two years of in-plant attachment in an industrial firm. On completion, a trainee will be awarded a trade certificate and will be required to serve a bond with the firm in which he was earlier a"ached. The bond is one year for a trainee who has completed his National Service and three years for a female trainee and male trainee who has not done his full-time National Service.

The Economic Development Board is also setting up three more training institutes. They are: (1) the Japan-Singapore Institute of Software Technology for programmers and systems analysts at the World Trade Centre; (2) the German-Singapore Institute for production engineering technicians and vocational instructors at Science Centre Road, Jurong; and (3) the French-Singapore Institute for electronics technicians at Science Centre Road, Jurong.

None of the EDB's training centres and institutes will be located in the Ang Mo Kio New Town. The EDB will, however, consider Ang Mo Kio as a possible location for future training centres. The VITB, whose vocational institutes complement EDB's training centres, has chosen the site at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 and the proposed Sembawang Expressway for its latest vocational institute.