SKILLS DEVELOPMENT (Particulars)

Mr Yeo Toon Chia asked the Minister for Finance (a) how many local companies have applied for and been granted funds from the Skills Development Fund; (b) what is the total number of employees who have benefitted from the Fund; (c) whether there are any training programmes being designed to benefit general workers; and (d) whether any plans are being worked out with the Vocational and Industrial Training Board to provide courses suitable for workers to upgrade their educational and technical skills to help them increase productivity.

Dr Hu Tsu Tau: Mr Speaker, Sir, the SDF operates three main grant schemes for promoting training, mechanization and development consultancy. Todate more than 7,400 companies have responded.

Under the Training Grant Scheme, 3,975 or 61% out of the total of 6,538 successful companies are local.

As for the Interest Grant for Mechanization Scheme, 717 or 65% out of the total of 1,103 successful applications are from local companies.

The Development Consultancy Scheme is restricted to local companies. It has supported 135 companies with grants for the engagement of external consultants to upgrade their business operations.

Under the Training Grant Scheme, the SDF had made grant commitments to support the training of a total of 311,806 trainees.

SDF has been actively looking for training opportunities for general workers. Its latest project is the Core Skills for Effectivenss and Change (COSEC) programme which will give workers permanent ownership of a set of five core skills that will prepare them for occupational competence and the capacity to adapt to change. COSEC is likely to have an impact on some 300,000 services, sales and clerical workers who would typically earn less than $800 per month.

SDF has been working closely with the VITB in funding all of VITB's continuing education and training programmes. VITB's apprenticeship schemes, joint industrial/VITB courses and the Modular Skills Training scheme have all be granted approval-in-principle support by the SDF. These courses help workers upgrade their educational and technical skills.