Job-readiness Training at Day Activity Centres

32 Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether there are plans to (i) improve and enhance job-readiness and training in our Day Activity Centres (DACs) for young adults with special needs beyond 18 years old such as collaborating with our ITEs for such training and (ii) provide more funding support and resources to ensure full placement of such young adults from Mondays to Fridays.

The Minister of State for Social and Family Development (Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong) (for the Minister of Social and Family Development): Sir, there is already a range of employment and employability support services along with independent living and care services made available to support both work capable and non-work capable persons with disabilities.

For example, Day Activity Centres (DACs) provide long-term care support for persons with disabilities with no or low work capability. These centres aim to equip persons with disabilities with community and daily living skills so as to enable them to live as independently as possible at home and also within the community. DAC participants who show progress and proficiency in these skills can be considered for entry into Sheltered Workshops. DACs are open from Mondays to Fridays to serve eligible persons with disabilities who wish to participants in their activities

On the other hand, Sheltered Workshops provide job training and self-enrichment programmes to support adults with disabilities who may not be work-ready or who are unable to work in an open employment setting. Sheltered Workshops collaborate with industry partners to develop training programmes for their participants. Like DACs, Sheltered Workshops also provide services from Mondays to Fridays for those who are able to participate.

And in addition to all these, adults with disabilities looking for employment can tap on the programmes under MOM’s Adapt and Grow initiatives, such as the Open Door Programme and Career Trial. The Open Door Programme, which is administered by SG Enable, provides job placement and job support services, as well as grants for training and job redesign. Career Trial provides an opportunity for jobseekers and employers to assess job fit through a work trial. During the trial, which can be up to three months, jobseekers receive a training allowance from the Government.

To encourage employers to hire Singaporean workers with disabilities, employers who employ such workers earning up to $4,000 a month receive the Special Employment Credit (SEC) that provides a wage offset of up to 16% of monthly salary for employees aged below 67, that is to say that for those who are aged below 67 years old, the employers can get the wage offset of up to 16% of the monthly salary. For those who are above 67, they will get 22% of the special employment credit.

In addition, SG Enable also helps to prepare persons with disabilities through CV clinics and the RISE Mentorship and IHL Internship programmes. The RISE Mentorship matches students with disabilities with business leaders from corporates, multi-national corporations and other inclusive employers; while the IHL internship matches students with well-established and inclusive organisations in various sectors based on their course of study, interests and preferences.

So, MSF and SG Enable will continue to improve the care and support to persons with disabilities together with our partners in the people and private sector through the implementation of the Enabling Masterplan programmes.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Lately, I have had the opportunity to meet up with parents of children with special needs. And the common refrain among them, especially those whose children who are 18 years old and above, is that they are not able to get full placement for their children in the DACs, that means from Monday to Friday. More often than not, it is always two to three days a week, and then what happens for the remaining two or three other days? It means they have to take leave to take care of their children. I am just wondering whether MSF would have plans to coordinate better among the DACS and the Sheltered Workshops with oversight from MSF so that the parents can be assured of full placement for their older children from Mondays to Fridays.

Another supplementary question, Mr Speaker, is that whether there are plans to have a more integrated approach for education and training for children with special needs, starting from pre-school all the way to work-readiness training that can be overseen by a few Ministries – MSF, MOE and MOM – together.

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for raising two very important questions. For the first question, our DACs and Sheltered Workshops are open from Mondays to Fridays and they welcome all eligible participants who are able to take advantage of the programmes and services to make use of the centres' programmes and facilities. For those who are not able to attend full-time from Mondays to Fridays, if the Member comes across any specific cases, please let us know so that we can get our social service agencies and my Ministry Staff to look into such cases, to better understand the reason why they are not able to take full advantage of the services provided by the DACs and Sheltered Workshops from Monday to Friday.

As to the Member's second question about the more concerted and integrated approach, this is indeed something that we are doing. We share the same concerns as the Member. Under the Enabling Masterplan 3 (EMP3), we set up three different, separate workgroups to focus on different areas. One of the workgroups is focusing on early intervention programmes. This workgroup is co-chaired by my colleagues Senior Parliamentary Secretary Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim together with Assoc Prof Kenneth Poon. So, they are looking into how to strengthen the learning support and the development support programmes in our pre-school education centres, serving students with special needs and disabilities.

One of the things they are doing is to strengthen the learning of the life skills and also other social skills. These are the important attributes and skills that will better prepare our students when they grow into adults and these attributes will enable them to integrate more smoothly into the society. It is a very important prerequisite to prepare young children for future employment.

There is another workgroup under the EMP3 which focuses on the improvement to employment opportunities and prospects. This workgroup is co-chaired by Member Ms Denise Phua and myself. This workgroup focuses specifically on how we can encourage more enlightened employers to provide employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. At the same time, we are also looking into how we can further strengthen and improve the training programmes for persons with disabilities and special needs, so that they will be able to grab the opportunities to be able to get employed.

So, there are a slew of initiatives and programmes under MSF, SG Enable and we also partner with MOE as well as MOM. So, there is a concerted effort aimed at trying to help persons with disabilities to better integrate into our society through employment.

Mr Speaker: Er Dr Lee Bee Wah. Please keep your question short, and I would like an answer that is short as well.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon): I also similarly have residents who share with me the challenges that their special needs children face when they reach the age of 18. My question is, how many Sheltered Workshops do we have and what is the capacity? Is there a long wait list?

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: I thank the Member for the questions. We have sufficient places in our Sheltered Workshops. Right now, we have altogether, 1,700 places. If there is a need for more capacity, we will certainly increase it. With regard to the Member's resident, I would appreciate it if she can provide the details to me, and we will follow up and try our best to help him or her to get into one of the Sheltered Workshops.

1.30 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. Ministerial Statement on behalf of the Minister for Transport.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), Written Answers to Question Nos 36-38, 40-41, 43-44, 47-59, 61-64, 66-71 and 73-80 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix. Question Nos 33-35, 39, 42, 45-46, 60, 65 and 72 have been postponed to the sitting of Parliament on 6 August 2019.]