RETRENCHED LOW-SKILLED WORKERS (Upgrading of skills)

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether his Ministry has any plans (i) to keep track of retrenched low-skilled workers (disaggregated by age and sex) from the electronics and other industries; (ii) to upgrade their skills to make them employable; and (iii) to help them to find employment after upgrading.

The Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Labour keeps track of the statistics on retrenched workers of all sectors. These statistics, with breakdown by sectors and occupational groups, are published in the Singapore Yearbook of Labour Statistics.

The National Productivity Board has launched a programme, acronymed START, for Start Training and Retraining, to help retrenched workers adjust and find new jobs. Under the programme, workers undergo training in learning skills and confidence building. The training is fully supported by the Skills Development Fund (SDF).

The START programme also helps to match the retrenched workers with suitable companies that will provide skills training for the workers in their new jobs. Such training is also supported by the SDF.

In addition, START provides consultancy services to advise the retrenched workers on how to settle into their new employment.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Would the Minister agree that some older workers, especially women, may miss the net and go back to their homes without making use of these facilities and would the Minister have some other means to make the net a little wider to catch everybody?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the NPB which administers the programme works very closely with the companies that are retrenching their workers and publicise the available support programmes through the companies to the workers involved. In this way, all the workers that are retrenched from the company are aware of the available support programmes.