Industry Information on Recruitment Plans of Employers for Future Jobs

4 Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Ministry regularly obtains industry information on recruitment plans of employers for future jobs, especially those involving time spans of three years and beyond, in the major economic sectors and, if so, whether it is prepared to publish such information on a regular basis to assist the general public in making better job plans.

The Minister for Manpower (Mr Lim Swee Say): Mdm Speaker, under the Committee on Skills, Innovation and Productivity chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman, sector agencies and tripartite partners are charting the transformation of their respective industries. These Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) outline the key growth areas for each sector and the future profile of skills and jobs that Singaporeans can pursue. The ITMs are also accompanied by their respective skills frameworks which outline very specific career paths, occupations, salary range, skills requirements and training programmes available for each of these sectors.

To date, ITMs have been launched for the Retail, Food Services and Precision Engineering sectors. As for the skills frameworks, they have also been launched for Hotel and Accommodation Services, Early Childhood Care and Education, and Precision Engineering. Career fairs are also being held to attract Singaporeans, to strengthen our Singaporean Core in these sectors. More sectors are in the pipeline, and the relevant career and employment information will be incorporated into our National Jobs Bank as and when it is published.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Murali Pillai.

Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok): I thank the Minister for the detailed explanation. Will the Minister consider encouraging, particularly, private sector companies, to give forecasts of employment, with these forecasts-giving a factor to be considered when issuing Employment Pass or other work passes?

The basic point is this. If a company makes a forecast very close to the time of recruitment, then Singaporeans may not be able to benefit from it. Either they lack training or opportunities. Then, the Ministry may be presented with a fait accompli in terms of applications from foreigners for these jobs.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for the suggestions. Yes, in fact, we are trying to look ahead and make a forecast in terms of future jobs and future skills. However, to make a forecast at the company level, three years ahead may be a challenge because not many companies are prepared to make that kind of commitment upfront. However, forecasts at the industry level is being done and will continue to be done.

If I may just give an illustration on how much is being done. At the last Parliament Sitting, I shared with this House the skills framework for the hotel sector. So, I will not repeat that again. Today, I have brought another two skills frameworks as an illustration.

One is for Early Childhood Care and Education. In this skills framework, the career paths that are being presented, as we move forward in this sector, are clearly spelt out. There are three career paths. Either you are an educarer, teacher or in a leadership position. For each of these career paths, there is a detailed description in terms of what are the jobs available, what are the skill requirements and so on. Therefore, any person who is looking into a career development in the future, in the next three years, can take a look at this and decide for himself/herself whether this is a sector that he/she wants to go into. If so, these are the career paths, these are the job positions, as well as the skills that they can pursue.

Another example is Precision Engineering. Here again, you can see that in this skills framework, it is clearly spelt out that anybody can join the sector to pursue two-career tracks. One is the engineering and technician track; the other is the management track. Again, the job positions are well spelt out. Even the salary range is all in there. For those who are interested in any particular position, they can go into the detailed write-ups, job by job.

On the whole, I want to emphasise again that Singapore is one of the very few countries in the world that is putting in so much effort to prepare our workforce and our industries for the future. Without the Industry Transformation Maps, this skills framework is not possible. For example, if you look at Precision Engineering, we talk about future manufacturing, which are the four key directions that are happening. These are very important because when they know that these are the emerging trends in Precision Engineering, then people will understand what the future openings are. For example, it is highlighted that robotics and automation are one of the emerging trends. Digitisation of manufacturing is another emerging trend; so also additive manufacturing, data analysis.

Therefore, I just want to emphasise again and again that we are one of the very few countries in the world that is putting in so much effort to try to visualise the future and try to put in place a skills framework to guide our fellow Singaporeans in their future career selection and development.

I hope that Members of this House can help us to bring out the message to the ground, because all these efforts may not be known enough on the ground. But as far as the Ministry of Manpower is concerned, this information, as and when they become available, we will incorporate them into our National Jobs Bank so that workers accessing the Jobs Bank will be able to have this information, decide for themselves which sector to go into, which career path to pursue, what job, what skills are needed and, from there, under SkillsFuture Singapore, they can pursue the skills upgrading in advance of their career change.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Desmond Choo.

Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): I thank the Minister for his clarification. It is certainly very encouraging to know that the Government is doing a lot to help the workers. What is going to help the workers, going ahead, will be that they know that there is a job waiting for them if they have made the required training and they have bothered to upgrade themselves.

Two points of clarification: one, whether the Ministry can consider ways to have more Place and Train programmes with companies; and two, how it is going to work with economic agencies, such as the Economic Development Board, to make sure that the investments that we bring in, the companies will work with the agencies through the Place and Train programmes so that our workers will be job-ready when the investments are here.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Madam, in terms of preparing the workers for the jobs of the future, there are two broad approaches. One is Place and Train, the other is Train and Place. Most of our focus today is on Place and Train. In other words, we try to guide the workers of today and tomorrow in terms of future job openings. From there, we put them through training programmes with the support of their employers. This is to ensure that by the time the worker has gone through the training, he/she will be meaningfully employed. So, most of our programmes are targeted at Place and Train for those not in employment.

For those in employment, the focus would be on Train and Place. In other words, today, you have a job but you are planning ahead for the next three to five years. So, under SkillsFuture, we are encouraging workers to take on the personal responsibility to take on training which may or may not have the support of their employers.

So, I fully agree with Mr Desmond Choo's point that we have to keep doing more to prepare workers of today for the jobs of tomorrow. So, for those who are already in employment, we try and help them to take on their personal upgrading through personal responsibility under SkillsFuture without having to depend on their employers.

Yet, at the same time, for those who are out of employment, the immediate task is to get them a job and train them for the job. So, it is more for Place and Train.

If we can continue to strengthen the Place and Train, and the Train and Place programmes, then, hopefully, we can minimise this mismatch, and the mismatch for professionals, managers, executives and technicians.