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Mr Speaker Sir, I rise in support of this year’s Budget.
Introduction
The 2019 Budget is a strategic and forward-looking one, with measures that are meant to benefit Singaporeans of all ages.
This includes strengthened support in education for young Singaporeans, as well as the Merdeka Generation Package and Bicentennial bonus that will help older Singaporeans and low- to middle-income families.
In addition, I was glad to see strong support for businesses and workers, with measures that will help them embrace and adapt to industry transformation.
For enterprises, the Scale-up SG programme and pilot Innovation Agents programme will help firms build deeper capabilities, innovate and grow.
For workers, the extension of the Special Employment Credit (SEC) and Career Support Programme (CSP) will help them upskill so they can keep ahead of the curve and be ready for emerging jobs.
Businesses and workers must embrace change together so that everyone can reap the benefits of industry transformation.
While these announcements are encouraging, there is more that we can do to enhance the employability and employment of our older workers and to make industry transformation “real” for our workers.
Employability and Employment of Older Workers
Our population is ageing. Older Singaporeans form a significant part of our workforce, which has a quarter aged 55 and above. This proportion is likely to grow as Singaporeans enjoy better healthcare and higher standards of living.
Older workers are valuable assets who can contribute experience and maturity to our workforce, and we must better ensure their employability and employment. With our transition to a knowledge-based economy and the wider use of enabling technology, our workers rely less on physical strength and work experience becomes an even more important asset. Our older workers with their years of industry experience are well-placed to leverage on technological tools to maximise their productivity potential. Successful Industry 4.0 transformation must be complemented by a competent Worker 4.0.
But this transformation is not a straight forward process. There are challenges. The key challenge is mindset change of both employers and workers. Some employers prefer hiring younger workers, while some older workers are apprehensive and resistant towards emerging technology trends.
However, in the face of rapid technological changes and the evolving demographic profile of our local workforce, the government, businesses and workers must all be ready to adjust mindsets and adapt.
This change in mindset must be led by employers. With supportive employers coming onboard the transformation journey, workers will also be encouraged to pick up the relevant skills. Here, I would like to encourage enterprises to focus greater efforts in 2 areas to integrate more older workers.
First, companies must put an emphasis on job redesign to ensure that older workers are able to adapt to new technology and different work environments. This could mean improving the user interface of a process so that technology adoption is easier.
For example, some SMEs I have visited in the manufacturing sector have made the control of industrial robots via the use of iPads very intuitive. The operator does not need to understand the inner workings of the robot. He only needs to be familiar with the controls on the iPad. By using a familiar platform like the iPad as the user interface between the operator and the robot, older workers found it less daunting to adapt to robotics and automation and are able to improve on their productivity.
Innovation and technology adoption do not have to be complicated for businesses or workers. We must do more to ensure that job redesign and technology adoption remains user-friendly and intuitive for our workers, both young and old. A more conducive work environment through job redesign will attract a younger talent pipeline to enter the industry while enabling experienced older workers to expand on their job roles.
Second, companies must provide better training for older workers to upskill or re-skill to leverage technology. For example, PSA has been testing and adopting many automation technologies, including unmanned automated guided vehicles (AGVs) as well as automated and remotely-controlled yard cranes. To ensure that their drivers and crane operators remain relevant and employable, PSA worked with the unions to train them for higher-skilled roles. The result is new skills, better pay and greater fulfilment for its workers, and enhanced productivity for PSA.
Training and re-skilling is key to ensure that our older workers remain employed and employable.
In 2018, more than 40% of clients served at NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) Career Centre were aged 50 and above, and approximately 30% of this group were PMETs. PMEs are therefore also at risk of displacement and must continually upgrade to seize emerging job roles.
NTUC has been working with government and industry partners on the Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs), Place-and-Train Programmes and Professional Development Programmes to upskill and reskill older workers. These programmes have been successful in helping many mature PMEs enter new and exciting job roles.
We therefore welcome the Government’s move to expand PCPs into new growth areas such as blockchain, embedded software development and prefabrication to support mid-career professionals entering these sectors. We will continue to work with the Government and employers to strengthen the employability of our older workers through our network of unions, social enterprises and U Associate partners.
There are other funding levers that NTUC can work with the government to better incentivise and support companies to up-skill and re-skill older workers. We will work with the Government on implementing the changes to the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) and Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) to ensure workers’ outcome as one of the key end-points of our Industry Transformation Maps (ITM).
Government grants for transformation must partner the Labour Movement and result in better outcomes for our workers. We need to continue helping Singaporean workers keep pace with economic transformation so that they can continue to have better wages, career prospects, progression, protection and privileges.
Since we launched the Industry Transformation Maps (ITM), much has been done and we are starting to see early successes across many sectors. However, the ultimate beneficiary of our ITM initiatives must be the Singaporean worker. Transformation and ITMs need to be made real, with tangible benefits for our Singaporean workers. I will be sharing more about this at the MTI Committee of Supply debate.
Mr Speaker Sir, training is therefore an important aspect of ensuring our workers – young or old – remain relevant to the transforming industry landscape. Only by helping our workers meaningfully and effectively use technology can we unleash the full potential of technology as a multiplier to the capabilities of our companies to be globally competitive.
NTUC as a Viewfinder for Workers’ Training
In my many conversations with our workers and employers, 2 issues stand out:
a. First, workers and companies are unsure of where to start on training. Workers who are keen to undergo training are confused by the myriad of courses available by different course providers and are unsure of what is most appropriate for them. Some companies also find it difficult to navigate the training space and find the right partners to train their workers.
b. Second, workers are often not involved in the change management process in the company’s transformation and wondered if they will be able to meet the needs of the company or get displaced by automation and robotics. Some companies have embarked on transformation but have yet to translate increased productivity into tangible benefits for their workers. This has led to a sense of unease among some of our workers on what industry transformation holds for them.
To address these issues and make Industry Transformation “real” for our workers, the NTUC Training Council and Training Executive Committee (Training Exco) were formed last year. The Training Exco, which I chair, comprises unionists and senior government agency representatives to coordinate the implementation of training efforts. To address the 2 issues which I highlighted, the Training Exco will focus our initial efforts in 2 areas:
Firstly, to help companies and workers navigate the training space, a key priority for the Training Exco this year is for NTUC to become a viewfinder for workers’ training. NTUC will work with unions, industry partners, government agencies, institutes of higher learning to curate courses and simplify the training space for businesses and workers.
NTUC’s e2i will be rolling out some enhancements to U Leap, a mobile app that can be a useful tool for workers to upskill, reskill and acquire knowledge in bite-sized formats. Over 200 topics and modules will be re-clustered to align with the 23 ITMs to help workers navigate through the courses. There will also be quicker registration and on-boarding process for learners to intuitively navigate U Leap for a better user experience.
We plan to introduce more certifiable modules in collaboration with educational institutes and professional organisations. NTUC will also work with agencies like EDB and ESG to bring more SMEs onboard U Leap Enterprise.
To-date we have 15 companies, including SMEs, such as Feinmetall and Fong Engineering, who have reaped the benefits of customised content for their workers to learn on-the-go. This allow workers to acquire useful knowledge without the need to be away from work, helping SMEs to better manage their manpower while upskilling their workforce.
To build a healthy ecosystem that supports transformation efforts, U Leap, together with Human Capital Singapore, will launch a community network for SME bosses in March this year. This is the start of various U Leap communities to enable users to network and participate in crowd-sourced learning as well as be attuned with trending topics on U Leap.
Secondly, to ensure that workers are co-drivers in the change and transformation process, the Labour Movement will be working with companies on the setting up of Company Training Committees, especially in our Unionised companies. Both management and workers must work together to engender continual training as an important ingredient for business transformation and increased productivity.
The Training Exco, through the promulgation of Company Training Committees in the companies, will enable the Labour Movement, employers and government to work together more closely to operationalise the ITMs, and in particular, support future skills development and job placement strategies under the various ITMs. We must ensure that Industry Transformation leads to real outcomes for our workers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, this year’s budget has presented a clear focus on supporting the needs of both businesses and workers so that they can take the necessary steps to transform and adapt to the future economy. This is a Budget that is both pro-Business and pro-Worker.
It sends a strong signal that Industry 4.0 and Worker 4.0 must continue to go hand-in-hand for us to succeed in the competitive global environment.
With close partnership amongst government, businesses and workers, with our strong Tripartite relationship, I’m confident that we can overcome challenges and achieve win-win-win outcomes for all.
Thank you.
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