SG Enable's Support for ITE Graduates with Disabilities to Access Host Companies under Work-Study Diploma Programme

4 Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked the Minister for Social and Family Development how SG Enable can support ITE graduates with disabilities to access suitable host companies under the Work-Study Diploma programme.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Sir, under the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Work-Study Diploma Programme, trainees are hired by the participating companies as full-time employees and receive on-the-job training delivered by employers in tandem with classroom training by ITE.

ITE graduates with disabilities participating in the Work-Study Diploma Programme may approach SG Enable for employment support from trained job coaches. They provide job support services, such as fostering workplace integration, and they also provide employers with practical advice on job redesign. SG Enable also connects interested inclusive employers with ITE to participate in the Work-Study Diploma Programme and offers disability awareness training to these employers to better support and integrate employees with disabilities.

In addition to support from SG Enable, ITE also works with employers to ensure that necessary support arrangements are in place for trainees with disabilities. One example is for employers to provide step-by-step instructions for trainees who require more time to learn at work.

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Punggol): Thank you, Speaker. For many young persons with disabilities and their families in the ITE system, the Work-Study Diploma pathway does offer very viable route towards a secure and meaningful future. However, given their condition, some may require a longer runway to secure a suitable host organisation, particularly as what the Senior Parliamentary Secretary had mentioned, if there needs to be job redesign or the workplaces to be properly resourced to be inclusive employment areas.

Could I ask if the Ministry would also consider establishing and regularly updating a centralised repository of inclusive employers, for example, the companies recognised under the SG Enable Enabling Mark, to make this available to schools offering the Work-Study Diploma programme, especially, not just for the diploma but also for work attachments, industrial attachments?

The other one too: would the Ministry also consider working with the schools and SG Enable to actually provide flexibility, especially with the extension of programme deadlines for our persons with disabilities, especially if they are unable to find a suitable host organisation within the stipulated deadline or timeframes, for reasons unrelated to their academic merits?

Mr Eric Chua: Sir, I thank the Member for her supplementary questions and for her attention to this space, inclusive employment. On the centralised register, as she has correctly identified, the essence of this scope of work really is about the customised nature of providing job support. So, finding out students with disabilities what their specific areas of strengths, interests, motivations and possible career pathways are. That is a highly bespoke journey. I think we will double down on that front.

As to time extensions, I think we could take the suggestion back and explore her suggestion. But even if we were to grant time extension, I think it goes back to the first point that I mentioned earlier, and that is for each student, we need to really explore what the possibilities are. Because this area of work, again, on inclusive employment, is one that is highly bespoke.