It was a lively and loud atmosphere on a Saturday morning as 4,000 workers and their family members, along with unions and company representatives gathered at Downtown East for the first Inclusive Growth Carnival on 2 April 2011.
Organised by NTUC's e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), the Carnival was an upbeat occasion to commemorate the early success of the Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP). With 255 projects granted IGP funding, close to 20,000 workers have benefited from productivity gains through the programme.
Joining in the celebrations was Guest-of- Honour Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC) Teo Chee Hean. He reassured workers that the Labour Movement and the Government are behind them and their companies in the nation-wide quest to improve productivity.
The day-long programme had fun and interesting Inclusive Growth Challenges games which were designed around themes relating to the tripartite partners' approach to better jobs and better lives, such as Productivity Improvements, Best Sourcing, Minimum Skills and Workfare.
Through the games, participants learned more about such concepts. For example, in the Productivity Improvement game, they had to gather and fold 30 T-shirts of the same colour in three minutes. The teams had to find a productive way to scour the big pile of T-shirts for their assigned colour, bring them to their allocated workstation and fold them neatly in any method that they deem to be the most productive.
41-year-old Lyne Ong found the carnival to be an interesting and good platform to learn about productivity. The Service Quality Manager at Home-Fix DIY Private Limited said: "For example, with an appropriate technique of folding clothes, you can actually do it faster. Likewise, with the proper technology or skills, it is possible to enhance productivity. Hence, we will ensure our staff receive the right training."
Pizza Hut Service Staff Dora Mamat, 40, had a good time bonding with her family as she participated in the games with her mother, children and her children's friends: "There are a lot of fun games and the children are happy."
