PROGRAMMES FOR THE RETRAINING OF WORKERS

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh asked the Minister for Manpower how his Ministry intends to measure the effectiveness of the various programmes set up by the National Trades Union Congress and other bodies to retrain workers, in terms of the impact of the programmes on workers' earnings, job placements and career mobility.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Government support for worker retraining is primarily through a $50 million grant to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) for the Skills Redevelopment Programme (SRP). This grant is matched by another $50 million from the Skills Development Fund. Another $20 million was set aside by the Government as an off-budget measure in July this year to expand training facilities and other infrastructure in support of the SRP.

The SRP was initiated to address the issue of long-term employability of lower-skilled workers, especially the older ones. For this reason, it is a requirement of training under the SRP that it should lead to skill certification. At present, this means certification conferred by the Institute of Technical Education and the Polytechnics. Courses leading to skill certification by these institutions have been formulated with the inputs from industry. Workers who are skills certified as a result of training under the SRP are in better position to benefit from the recognition in the market for such skills. For example, the gross median monthly salary for an NTC-2 graduate is $1,250, while for an ITC graduate it is $1,500. As 70% of SRP trainees have an educational level below `N' levels, the ability to obtain such skill certification is in itself an achievement.

In the present difficult economic climate, when workers face retrenchment, the Ministry is more concerned with job preservation as an indicator of effectiveness. In this respect, the SRP has so far given encouraging results. As at end-September, over 2,800 workers have been sent by their companies for training under the SRP. Another 1,300 have been sent for training by companies, which had adopted a shorter workweek; in other words, they were sent for training as an alternative to being retrenched. To date, none of these 4,100 workers have been retrenched. They are either still undergoing their training or have completed training and continue to be gainfully employed by their current employers.

A further 400 workers were sent for training by companies prior to being retrenched. These were mainly companies that were winding down operations and had no choice but to let their staff go. They agreed to send these workers for training under the SRP in order to enhance their chances of getting another job. All the workers have since been successfully placed with new employers.

The NTUC and the Singapore Hotel Association have just launched the sector-driven SRP for the hotel industry. To date, 55 hotels have signed up to retrain a total of 2,000 workers. Because of the economic downturn, these workers would have been vulnerable to retrenchment. Instead, the SRP has provided an opportunity for the hotel industry to upgrade its manpower at affordable cost during a lull period.

The Ministry will continue to monitor the success of SRP training in enabling workers to retain their jobs.

As the SRP is employer-based, the focus has been on persuading companies to send their existing workers for training. However, as the numbers of unemployed have risen, we have also embarked on an initiative to match unemployed workers with employers who are willing to take them on and support their training under the SRP. The Ministry will monitor the number of such unemployed workers who are successfully placed as a result of this initiative.

In the longer term, the Ministry intends to study the overall effectiveness of the SRP in terms of the employability and increase in the earnings capacity of trainees. However, we should be mindful that such analyses would be more meaningful when the economic situation has stabilised.