NTUC and Yayasan Mendaki will work together to enhance support, strengthen workforce competencies and secure job placements for more Malay-Muslim workers in emerging and growth sectors.
The two organisations committed to the effort by signing an agreement on 24 February 2022.
The agreement signing ceremony was attended by NTUC Deputy Secretary General Chee Hong Tat Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Defence Zaqy Mohamad, NTUC Operations Department Director Fahmi Aliman, and Mendaki CEO Zuraidah Abdullah.
The agreement was part of the M3 Focus Area 4’s (FA4) key strategy to uplift the Malay-Muslim community.
M3 is a collaborative effort between three key community institutions — Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), Mendaki and Mesra that seeks to uplift the Malay-Muslim community.
Through M3 FA4, NTUC and Mendaki will look at strengthening the resilience of workers and ensuring their employability through skills upgrading and lifelong learning initiatives.
This focus area will continue to target a range of jobseekers such as mature workers, PMET jobseekers, fresh graduates, young workers, and the general community, including lower-wage workers.
Mendaki will act as the main bridge to encourage the Malay-Muslim community and workforce to take up national employment and employability programmes. It will also work with NTUC LearningHub (LHUB) and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) for training and job placement programmes.
Meanwhile, NTUC will lead the M3 FA4 Taskforce and spearhead activities relating to upskilling, training, career fairs, and partnering companies to provide job placement opportunities in emerging and growth sectors.
“I am delighted with the formalisation of the partnership between NTUC and Mendaki through the MOU [memorandum of understanding]. Through this partnership, NTUC and Mendaki would be able to leverage on each other’s strength and resources to provide targeted and holistic assistance to our workers. This will help to strengthen the competencies of the Malay-Muslim workforce and prepare them to join the emerging and growth sectors,” said Ms Zuraidah.
NTUC, together with Young NTUC, LHUB and e2i, will partner with Mendaki Future Ready programmes for youth and PMETs.
NTUC added that it will leverage Mendaki’s Satellite Centres and Youth Spaces as possible venues for targeted outreach and training spaces.
Commenting on the partnership, Mr Fahmi said: “Cost of living remains as workers’ core concern. The best approach is to enable our workers to access better jobs, earn better wages with better skills.
“The NTUC-Mendaki partnership is a prime example how NTUC continues to enlarge our efforts on this front, forging collaborations with community-based and self-help organisation partners to enhance our reach to workers and communities that would benefit from our national-level resources in training and job placement.”
