Remarks by Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State, Ministry of Education at Naalai Namathe

1.Good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure to be here, at this very meaningful event organised by the Tamil News team.

2."Naalai Namathe". I think it is a very appropriate theme, because we are always talking about how we can be better tomorrow, not just for ourselves, but for our children and our families.

3.I am Minister of State in both the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Manpower (MOM). On the MOM side, it is about jobs: How do we create good jobs for Singaporeans, how do we make work conditions and remuneration fair and sustainable. And on the MOE side, I take care of upskilling of adults, training and education for adults.

4.The good news is that, from 1 May this year, Singaporeans who are 40 years old and above will get an additional $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit top-up with no expiry. What is the intent of this? The Government knows that moving ahead, there will be disruption because of technologies and new trends, there will be new job roles and also new skills that more of us will need to have in order to stay employable and have longer careers.

5.Of course, we know that we have an ageing population. There are actually many opportunities we can seize with an ageing workforce, but we need to prepare our ageing workforce well. We have to make sure that they have the relevant skills, so that the employers will find the senior workforce attractive and employable. With this SkillsFuture Credit top-up, we hope that every Singaporean 40 years old and above, if he or she wants to continue to work and upskill, he or she can use the resources to apply for a suitable course.

6.There are about 7,000 courses at the moment. We are still reviewing the courses, because we want to make sure that the courses that we support for this SkillsFuture Credit top-up, under the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme, will be courses that we know have better employment outcomes. That means people who attend these courses tend to be able to find jobs or be able to acquire skills that help them in their career. In the next couple of years, we will continue to review and probably add more courses, though a lot depends on what the industry needs, what employers are looking out for, and what are the courses that, based on feedback, we know are useful.

7.Now, besides SkillsFuture Credit, some of you may be interested to know that there are also other programmes to support Singaporeans who are looking for a career switch or new jobs.

8.We have the Career Conversion Programme. It is managed largely by the Ministry of Manpower, through Workforce Singapore (WSG), and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). As the title suggests, it is for people who want to try something new, but may not have experience in the new job role and require some support.

9.What the Government does is, we provide salary support to the employer, so that when the employer hires the Singaporean worker, the employer will get some wage offset from the Government. The programme is a win-win. As far as the employer is concerned, the employer is able to hire someone new, try him out, train him, and at a reduced cost to the company. For the Government, it is good, because we want Singaporeans who want to find jobs, who also want to try new job roles, to have a chance to do so.

10.For those who are more senior in age, there are also other programmes such as the Senior Employment Credit and Part-Time Re-Employment Grant. These are the programmes that the Government works with employers on, to encourage the employer to hire more senior people, to lower the operating costs for the companies that are more inclusive, and that hire more senior workers. We know that this is the way to go, at least for Singapore, looking at the profile of our workforce and to encourage more seniors to work.

11.Some of you might have heard of the Majulah Package, first announced last year by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and this year, more details were released. The Majulah Package encourages Singaporeans, the young seniors born in 1973 or earlier, to continue to work. And as long as you continue to work, every year you will get this "Earn and Save Bonus" in both cash and CPF. That is encouragement for our young seniors, so that more of you will feel well-supported, not just from the salary and the income that you get from your work, but also, through recognition from the Government.

12.There are many things I think we can do to support seniors. What I hope is that our workplaces will be more inclusive, welcoming of senior workers, and welcoming of women as well, because we know that the workforce potential for women actually can be greater. Over the years, Singapore has done well. We are seeing a high proportion of women joining the workforce and staying at work instead of dropping out too early because of family reasons. But for us to be able to continue to do that, workplaces have to be supportive, family friendly. Women also have to feel well-supported by colleagues, and so on.

13.There are various things that we hope to do, and looking at you today, I want to wish all of you well. Whether you are a senior worker, whether you are a woman or a young person who is looking ahead for a better tomorrow, I want to wish you well and good health.

14.Thank you.

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