LIFELONG LEARNING ENDOWMENT FUND (Use by unemployed and retirees)

Mr Hawazi Daipi asked the Minister for Manpower if he will consider allowing the unemployed and retirees to use the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund in order to be relevant for re-employment.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, the aim of the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund (LLEF) is to support the acquisition of skills by Singaporeans so that they will become more employable. In rolling out our Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund programme, we will try to reach out to as many Singaporeans as possible, especially the lower skilled or lower income Singaporeans who face the greatest difficulties adapting to changes in the economy and labour market. This would include the unemployed and retirees who wish to rejoin the workforce.

We will adopt a targeted approach in helping these groups of Singaporeans. We will work with employers, trade unions, community organisations and individuals to determine the areas of greatest priorities and design specific programmes to address these needs. The unemployed and retirees can apply to participate in these programmes. Over the past few years, we have intro- duced programmes under the Skills Re-development Programme to help these Singaporeans. We plan to use the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund to expand on these existing programmes or to introduce new programmes.

One example is the National IT Literacy Programme, which is currently under development. IT is fast becoming an essential basic employability skill needed at the workplace. We will be adopting both the employer-based and community-based approaches for the National IT Literacy Programme. This means that aside from workers who are co-sponsored by their employers, individual Singaporeans, including unemployed or self-employed Singaporeans, retirees and housewives will also benefit from the training incentives given under the programme.