The Government announced during Budget 2016 that 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) will be launched over a two-year period to spur the country’s economy into the future.
The 23 sectors cover 80 per cent of the economy.
Seven have already been launched and they cover the logistics, precision engineering, food services, food manufacturing, hotels, air transport and retail sectors.
Each ITM is supported by strong partnerships among industry players, government agencies and the unions.
For example, the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU) has been involved in the planning and implementation of the food services ITMs.
FDAWU General Secretary (GS) Tan Hock Soon says the union has been communicating about the food services ITM to its union leaders during town hall meetings and retreats.
Meetings have also been held with management representatives of companies to speak to them about SkillsFuture and how their employees can utilise it to improve their skillsets.
On its part, NTUC’s Industry Transformation and Productivity (ITP) Director Desmond Choo said the Labour Movement ensures it is plugged into every single ITM.
The Challenges
He added that one of the biggest challenges in implementing the ITMs is addressing the skills gap.
Reaching out to both employers and workers through the various unions is a key role for the Labour Movement.
“How fast we work together to make those changes as outlined in the industry transformation map for the respective sectors will decide whether Singapore’s version of industry transformation is going to succeed," explained Mr Choo.
"On our part, the Labour Movement will be going down to the ground to let workers know how the ITM will play a role at the micro level. For this, we are working closely with the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute (OTCi) and the unions to go down to the companies and conduct industry specific classes for branch officials. This will help give them more information about the spirit behind the ITM and how they can work with their management to be involved in the big change,” said Mr Choo.
The Labour Movement’s U SME has also been helping to spread the message about the ITMs to small- and medium-sized enterprises.
NTUC Assistant Director-General and NTUC Director (U SME) Yeo Guat Kwang said: “U SME is prepared to handhold some of the first movers and early adopters of new ideas and technology and link them up to the relevant government agencies if they need help. In the process, we at U SME also learn some of the difficulties and practicalities faced by these small businesses in the digitisation process.”
Food Services ITM
The first ITM to be launched in September 2016 was for the food services sector, which employs nearly 160,000 workers.
The food services ITM will focus steering growth in four key areas.
Firstly, it will innovate new business formats and transform existing models.
SPRING Singapore says food companies can explore innovative, manpower lean formats such as retailing of ready meals or implementing food vending machines and productive coffee shops to better meet the changing needs of consumers in a more resource efficient manner.
The next strategy is driving productivity through the mass adoption of technology to improve operational efficiency and increase productivity.
Some examples of these are digital services, automating the kitchen and dishwashing and a central kitchen.
Thirdly, re-skilling workers to take on value-added roles. With the help of the Food Services Skills Framework, employers can map out clear progression pathways and skills training needs for their workers.
The fourth area is expanding Singapore food companies internationally.
According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) , one key challenge faced by the food services industry is the continued reliance on manpower. Jobs would have to be redesigned and this would require workers to acquire new skills to stay relevant.
“We are doing our best in galvanising workers to go for training in the area of the food services sector,” said Mr Tan.
“At the end of the day we have to convince the workers that there is a future for them. When they complete their skills upgrading programmes, many of them assume better and higher positions and this helps the various training schemes to pick up the momentum,” he added.
Source: NTUC This Week
