WORKSKILLS TRAINING PROGRAMME

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan asked the Minister for Manpower (a) how many unemployed workers have taken up the WorkSkills Training Programme since it was started; (b) what is the age profile as well as educational and skills level of these workers who have taken up the Programme; and (c) how many of these have since been placed with jobs, by their age profile, educational and skills level.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Dr Ng Eng Hen) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, Sir, Dr Amy Khor asked about the WorkSkills Training Programme. This Programme was launched in December 2001. It was a programme to help the unemployed cope with job loss and encourage them to participate in skills upgrading. For the general information of the House, this is not a programme that specifically deals with skill sets. The training is more general. To give you a better understanding of the programme, it deals with managing their emotions when they are retrenched, financial impact planning, managing expectations, job search and writing and interviewing skills. These are some of the things which we teach. It aims to teach workers how to plan their next career move, search for jobs and secure employment quicker.

Since its inception, about 16,000 workers have been trained. Close to 83% or nearly 13,000 were unemployed when they signed up for the course.

The bulk of the participants were above 60 years old. In fact, 60% of them were above 35 years old. In equivalent proportion, 60% had secondary, NTC-2 or lower qualifications. In other words, 40% had post-secondary qualifications, either in Diploma, ITE or Degrees. The mix of trainees that I have just recounted broadly reflects the current educational workforce profile.

As I have mentioned, the WorkSkills Training Programmme does not directly place the participants in a job. However, participants are referred to the various job-placement agencies to facilitate their job search after this course.

Even though the programme is not specifically directed at job placement, my Ministry was interested to know how effective this was in helping trainees who had attended the programme. We are in the midst of the study which is expected to end in October. But I can give some preliminary results. The results showed that 43% of the sampled trainees managed to secure employment after going through the programme. We would like to take some credit, but since it was not a specific programme, I cannot quite prove the cause and effect. Nevertheless, we did ask the professionals and the executives whether they found the programme useful. 98% of the participants rated the programme as helpful in their job search and 90% of them said that they would recommend it to someone else.