Story by Shukry Rashid
Photo by Mendaki
Will technology have a negative impact on workers’ livelihoods? This was one of the concerns raised at a recent dialogue session. NTUC Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) Zainal Sapari responded by saying that the Government, the Labour Movement and management partners have introduced Sectoral Manpower Plans to anticipate the training required to prepare workers for jobs in the future.
He was speaking at a dialogue session called Sembang Petang 2016 organised by Mendaki, Mendaki SENSE and REACH on 11 June 2016 at Tanjong Katong Complex. Taking place for the second year, the event aimed to increase awareness of SkillsFuture and the need for the Malay/Muslim community to continually deepen and renew their skills.
The dialogue featured Malay/Muslim Members of Parliament and was support by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, NTUC U Care Centre, Mediacorp Suria and Warna 94.2FM.
Singaporean Jobs
Another topic that surfaced was about foreign talents and jobs for Singaporean. ASG Zainal addressed this by saying that the Government has allocated quotas for companies hiring foreign talents, except for those in top management. There are no quotas for those jobs as it will impede investments from overseas if they cannot employ the workers they want.
He added that the Government is also concerned and has implemented various initiatives to help both companies and Singaporean workers. These include the Adapt and Grow initiative that contains various programmes such as Place-And-Train, Professional Conversion Programme, and the Career Support Programme.
Source: NTUC This Week
