Bigger Push for Skills Upgrading
The Education Ministry’s Committee of Supply session took place on 7 March. Find out what’s being planned for lifelong learning and grooming the future workforce.
By Ramesh Subbaraman
Plans for Lifelong Learning
Speaking during the debate, NTUC’s Nominated Member of Parliament K Thanaletchimi noted that much has been done for Singaporeans to embrace the lifelong learning culture.
She however urged that “more can be done to encourage them to utilise their SkillsFuture Credits and embrace new skills and knowledge to stay relevant and future-proof themselves.”
In response, the Education Ministry said it is stepping up its efforts to spread the message about SkillsFuture and help Singaporeans benefit from it.
Plans were announced by Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung during the Ministry’s debate .
For a start, it will be stepping up efforts to connect with Singaporeans and help them benefit from SkillsFuture under the SkillsFuture Engage initiative.
“SkillsFuture Singapore will partner with the People’s Association, Community Development Councils, Workforce Singapore and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to conduct workshops at the community level to explain SkillsFuture to Singaporeans, guide them in finding the right training programmes to attend, identify the right skills for them to learn, and advise them on how to use their SkillsFuture Credit well. We expect to reach out to tens of thousands of Singaporeans each year through this initiative, and roll out the programme in the middle of this year,” said Minister Ong.
There is also an online portal MySkillsFuture that enables Singaporeans to chart their own career and lifelong learning pathways.
Also on the cards is a new national training programme called Future@Work which will be launched by the end of the year.
Under Future@Work, workers can look forward to bite-sized, modular programmes that aim to build the awareness, knowledge and competencies needed in Singapore’s future economy.
Minister Ong noted that through efforts to promote lifelong learning and SkillsFuture, the training participation rate in Singapore has gone up steadily from 32 to 42 per cent over the last ten years and about half of that increase was achieved over the last three years.
He added that more will be done to press home the message of training for life.
More details of these programmes can be obtained from www.skillsfuture.sg.
Industrial Attachments
Also raised during the debate was the topic of preparing students for the future economy raised by NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Zainal Sapari. The Labour Member of Parliament urged the Ministry to do so through on-the-job training and overseas programmes.
He added that there is a rising trend amongst employers looking for skills and experience beyond academic qualifications.
Agreeing with Mr Zainal’s suggestion, Minister Ong said the ITEs, Polytechnics and Universities have been revamping and improving their programmes.
“There is now great emphasis on industry attachment and internship. They are championing overseas internships, so that students get early access to international exposure”, he said.
A Focus on Transport Matters
At its Committee of Supply debate on 8 March 2017, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) responds to Labour Members of Parliament’s concerns on the transport industry’s future.
By Fawwaz Baktee
Raising Bus Service Standards
In his Committee of Supply (COS) speech, Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan urged commuters to be patient as the Government fine-tunes requirements under the Bus Contracting Model (BCM).
“Our bus captains are the key to delivering higher service levels. Our bus captains strive to improve bus arrival regularity and reduce bunching. LTA [Land Transport Authority] has set fair but ambitious standards, and our bus captains are rising to the challenge. They work closely with their service controllers to manage bus arrivals real-time. That is why some buses need to slow down sometimes,” said Minister Khaw.
He was responding to Labour Member of Parliament and NTUC Tripartism Director Melvin Yong’s call to allow some form of flexibility in service requirements such as timing of bus arrivals and the number of checkpoints bus captains are required to meet under the BCM.
Mr Yong, who is also the executive secretary of the National Transport Workers’ Union, reiterated this call in his latest blog post entitled “Our Bus Captains – Striving to Meet Higher Standards” on labourbeat.org, published on the same day.
“The running time for bus captains to complete their bus journeys should be made more dynamic to accommodate peak and non-peak periods. Our Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates are adjusted quarterly to take into account the peak and non-peak periods like school holidays. With data analysis, can the LTA do likewise for our bus service running time?” asked Mr Yong in his blog.
He also urged for improvements to be made to bus infrastructure and operation systems.
Minister Khaw said: “Under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme, or BSEP, we have injected 850 buses, and introduced 70 new or amended routes. The improvement has been felt on the ground …
Meanwhile, our bus infrastructure has expanded in tandem with the larger bus fleet, with three new interchanges and more parking lots at existing interchanges.”
Uplifting Rail Workers
Training and Upgrading
The Government will continue to work with its tripartite partners to help rail and bus workers upgrade and upskill to keep up with changes in technology, said Second Minister for Transport Ng Chee Meng.
“The advent of technological innovations and new business models worries our transport workers, understandably … The right approach is to prepare our workers for these changes and not obstruct them. In any case, they [technological advancements] cannot be stopped, only slowed, but if we do so we will lose out on the many opportunities they also bring,” said Minister Ng.
He was responding to Mr Yong’s call to help rail workers stay relevant in the face of technological advancements.
Workplace Safety and Health
As we step up the pace of asset renewal in the rail industry, safety for rail workers will remain the highest priority, assured Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
He was responding Mr Yong’s plea for the Government to enable rail workers to perform their duties in a safe environment.
“Today, they battle challenging working conditions at the underground depot and poorly ventilated tunnels. More can be done to improve their work environment and ensure that the air conditions do not pose any health concerns,” said Mr Yong.
Touching on the incident that led to the deaths of railway workers last year, Minister Khaw said: “[It] is a sharp reminder to our operators that safety must never be taken for granted. The operators are determined to prevent another tragedy. LTA will closely monitor their safety procedures.”
Doing More for Taxi Drivers
Minister Ng said that the Government will study whether it is feasible to reduce taxi drivers’ licence renewal fee should they clock a stipulated minimum number of hours driving on the roads within a year, as suggested by Labour Member of Parliament and NTUC Assistant Director-General Ang Hin Kee during the debate.
According to Mr Ang, waiving the Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence (TDVL) renewal fees might help incentivise more licensed taxi drivers to ply the roads.
Today, active taxi drivers pay only half of the TDVL renewal fee when they renew their licence every three years, which is about $20.
In light of the new diesel tax, Mr Ang also urged LTA to consider reviewing the overall operating costs incurred by taxi drivers as they face competition from private hire cars.
Minister Ng also added that National Taxi Association (NTA) must work with taxi operators to innovate to meet the competition from private hire cars and mobile technology, which has been a great disruptive change in the transport sector.
“My view is that that generally, we should allow the taxi industry as much flexibility as possible to adapt and evolve, to respond to new market conditions and competition. Our taxi drivers have to make a living, and we should not restrict their ability to compete effectively,” said Minister Ng.
Minister Khaw added that currently the Government is working closely with NTA and taxi operators to help drivers keep up with changes in the taxi industry.
Productivity in the Aviation Industry
Slated to be opened at the end of this year, Changi Airport Terminal 4 (T4) is expected to realise up to 10 per cent in manpower savings with the use of automation, said Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Transport Josephine Teo.
She was responding to Mr Ang, who asked how the new terminal will be the showcase of industry transformation.
SMS Teo said: “On opening day, passengers will have a full suite of self-service and automated options for check-in, bag drop, immigration clearance and boarding.
“Beyond what passengers see, at the back-end, T4 will have automated baggage screening, sorting, and storage. Smart cleaning initiatives, centralised support functions for retail and F&B will further reduce the manpower needed.”
In a factsheet released on the same day, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said that it is currently working closely with tripartite partners to improve productivity and transform existing jobs in the air transport sector.
Some examples include the self-automated check-in and automated self-bag drop that have been piloted by several airlines, where they achieved manpower savings of up to 20 per cent; the application of robotics in baggage and cargo handling; and the use of autonomous guided vehicles to prepare food that can potentially reduce 40 per cent of preparation time.
Here are more highlights from the Committee of Supply debates in Parliament which ended on 9 March 2017, with Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) raising a variety of issues.
By Shukry Rashid and Ramesh Subbaraman
Ministry of Law
More for In-house Counsel
Speaking during the Ministry of Law’s (MinLaw) Committee of Supply (COS) Debate on 3 March 2017, Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah said that the ministry noted and agreed with NTUC Assistant Secretary-General and Labour Member of Parliament Patrick Tay’s suggestion that Singapore should develop the talent pool of in-house counsel.
An in-house counsel is a lawyer employed by a corporation.
Mr Tay, who is also a member and part of the advisory board of the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA), said that SCCA’s Competency Framework needs to be made mandatory at some point in time if the Government is serious about developing the talent pool of in-house counsels in Singapore. SCCA is an NTUC U Associate partner.
Singapore is currently one of the few countries in which in-house counsels are not required to meet any form of professional standards.
The Competency Framework by SCCA will be supported by the Labour Movement as a national standard for the in-house counsel industry this year.
Small Claims Tribunal
Ms Indranee said that the issue of increasing the Small Claims Tribunal’s (SCT) jurisdiction is currently under review by MinLaw and the State Courts.
This came after Mr Tay urged MinLaw to “seriously look into reviewing the jurisdictional limits of the Small Claims Tribunal” as more people can have inexpensive and faster orders to their contractual claims.
He especially voiced his concerns for professional freelancers who are on contract for service and had to resort to the SCT when they are not paid for their rendered work.
Protection from Harassment Act
Mr Tay also asked MinLaw for an update on the Protection from Harassment Act.
In response, Ms Indranee said that as of 31 January 2017, some 268 applications for Protection Orders had been filed since the Act took effect on 15 November 2014. These included applications by victims of sexual, workplace and online harassment.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Young NTUC Director and Labour MP Desmond Choo said that Singapore “should and must ride on the technology revolution and make technology-enabled Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) more pervasive in our society”. These include telecommuting with the usage of cloud services and video conferencing.
In response to Mr Choo, Mrs Teo thanked him for his suggestions on how technology can be an enabler for FWA.
Ministry of Home Affairs
SGSecure
Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said the Government will push ahead with its efforts on SGSecure, a national movement on how Singaporeans should respond in the event of a terrorist attack.
He added that security agencies will partner the Ministry of Manpower, NTUC and the Singapore Business Federation to engage businesses and unions in this effort.
Labour MP Patrick Tay urged MHA to recruit ambassadors who can help spread the SGSecure message and be trained in skills to handle the response in the event of a terrorist attack.
Grading of Security Agencies
The grading of security agencies in the private security industry was raised by NTUC Assistant Secretary-General and Labour MP Zainal Sapari.
He called for the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure greater transparency of standards in the Police Licensing and Regulatory Department’s (PLRD) Security Agencies Grading Exercise (SAGE). Mr Zainal said that the lack of specific knowledge on assessment criteria and its benchmark had caused great worry to the private security agencies.
He also asked if the PLRD can review the timelines in between grading exercises. As the current assessment period conducted by PLRD and MOM is from June to May in the following year, the security agencies are in perpetual grading mode as deployment sites will be randomly selected for assessment anytime within this period.
Mr Zainal said that security agencies are concerned that SAGE is inconsistent in its ratings based on examples shared by unionised private security agencies. Some agencies risk losing their right to secure a site because their grading slipped a notch and security officers will either have to change employers to stay on the same site or have to relocate to another site. He hoped that MHA and PLRD would review this as well.
Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs) Desmond Lee said that in working on the Industry Transformation Map, MHA will take the comments and suggestions into account.
Ministry of Finance
Procurement Policies
Speaking during the Finance Ministry’s budget debate, Mr Zainal called on the Government to take the lead to set the benchmark for good procurement practices for the private sector to follow.
This will set the stage for better service provider-service buyer relationship that will ultimately benefit workers.
Second Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong said: “Wherever possible, government agencies will take into consideration the HR and tripartism records of tendering companies. In particular, we focus on the sectors that are more at risk of cheap-sourcing and suppressed wages, like the cleaning, security and landscape sectors. For example, the Government buys only from accredited service providers that adopt the Progressive Wage Model for cleaners.”
Ministry of Health
Future-Ready Healthcare Sector
In the next three years, Singapore will require about 9,000 staff for new facilities and services in the public healthcare and community care sectors. Half of these roles will be for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs).
Speaking during the Health Ministry’s budget debate, Senior Minister of State (Health) Dr Amy Khor announced that MOH will invest an additional $24 million over the next three years in various manpower development schemes.
Two Labour MPs, Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay and Nominated MP and President of the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union K Thanaletchimi spoke on manpower challenges during the MOH debate.
Ms Thanaletchimi urged MOH and employers to work with the Labour Movement’s Future Jobs, Skills and Training department to identify emerging opportunities and determine the necessary expertise and training workers will need to join the healthcare industry.
Mr Tay urged MOH to work with the Workforce Singapore and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to come up with new Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP) in the healthcare sector.
Since 2003, about 800 midcareer professionals have undergone conversion training to become nurses under the PCP for Nursing.
“We will make further enhancements to the PCPs for Nursing. MOH will increase funding for nursing PCP training so that employers co-fund only 10 percent of the training cost, down from 20 to 50 percent currently,” said Dr Khor.
MOH is also collaborating with SkillsFuture Singapore to develop a Skills Framework, targeted for launch at the end of 2018, for the entire healthcare sector to support healthcare professionals in their career and clinical development.
Source: NTUC This Week
