Measures to Strengthen Local Care Worker Retention and Career Development in Social Services Alongside Recruitment from Non-traditional Source Countries
Ministry of Social and Family DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns whether recruiting workers from non-traditional source (NTS) countries for social service roles will be accompanied by measures to improve professionalism and retention for local care workers. Mr Victor Lye raised concerns about career progression, prompting Minister Masagos Zulkifli B M M to explain that the NTS Occupation List will expand in 2026 to include early childhood roles. The Minister detailed that the government regularly reviews salaries to ensure market competitiveness and provides professional development programs to support local educators. Additionally, well-being initiatives include designating Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day as preschool holidays and removing the requirement for childcare centres to operate on Saturdays from 2025. These strategies aim to attract and retain local talent while supplementing the workforce with higher-quality non-PMET workers from non-traditional source countries.
Transcript
23 Mr Victor Lye asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the opening of social service occupations to workers from non-traditional source (NTS) countries will be accompanied by measures to strengthen professionalism, retention and career progression for local care workers.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: The Non-Traditional Source Occupation List (NTS-OL) allows businesses to hire higher-quality non-PMET workers from non-traditional source countries for specific roles with insufficient locals to augment the workforce.
While the NTS-OL will be expanded from September 2026 to include Early Childhood (EC) roles, such as infant educators and early years educators, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) has been working with Government-supported preschools to grow their local workforce and retain talent in the sector. We regularly review the salaries of EC educators to ensure their salaries are market-competitive and commensurate with their contributions and professional skills. In addition, ECDA has introduced various initiatives to support the professional development and career progression of our EC educators, such as through the Professional Development Programmes and Continuing Professional Development courses. ECDA has also been working actively to enhance educator well-being. Some of our efforts include designating Teachers' Day and Children's Day as preschool holidays from 2024 and removing the requirement for childcare centres to operate on Saturdays from 2025.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development and ECDA will continue to work closely with relevant stakeholders to attract and retain local EC educators in the sector.