It was a triumphant mark of celebration for the Labour Movement as NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) celebrated the early successes of the $40 million Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) which has seen some 255 company projects and close to 20,000 workers benefitting from productivity gains since its launch in August last year.
Joining in the celebration at the inaugural Inclusive Growth Carnival held on 2 April 2011 was Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean who addressed the strong crowd made up of workers, family members, unions and companies.
His message was simple yet packed with meaning. DPM Teo, who is also the Chairman of the National Productivity & Continuing Education Council, stressed the importance of learning, training and re-training for workers to up-skill themselves in an ever-changing environment in order tomove up in their jobs and secure a good income.
At the same time, he also highlighted the need for companies to work together and grow together with their workers, giving the assurance that the Government and NTUC will support various programmes to increase productivity.
He said: “First of all, productivity is important for the individual worker and his family because it gives him the skills to continue upgrading and remain competitive. It gives him a secure job, good income for his family.”
“Secondly, the companies and workers need to work together and that’s part of the reason for this carnival - to encourage teamwork. And then thirdly, the Government and the NTUC especially through e2i have various programmes to help companies as well as workers to increase their productivity.
“We are working with trade associations, business federations to roll out programmes. At the same time through e2i, we’ve got 255 projects going already involving 20,000 workers. In this way, we hope that the productivity message goes to both levels - companies and workers.”
Through this project, the buy-in from companies has seen some encouraging results. Beyond the traditional Job Re-creation Programme sectors, there is also increasing interest from Services and Manufacturing sectors such as F&B, Hospitality and SME Manufacturing who already have early adopters to embark on automation and improved processes. With this, the pace for industry redevelopment will pick up and more workers will stand to benefit.
