ROUNDTABLE PANELLISTS

• Indranee Rajah, Second Minister for Finance and National Development

• Alvin Liew, senior economist, UOB

• Ang Yuit, president, Association of Small and Medium Enterprises

• Desmond Tan, deputy secretary-general, National Trades Union Congress

• Moderator: Vikram Khanna, associate editor, The Straits Times

These are edited excerpts of the roundtable.

Vikram Khanna: Reskilling and upskilling is nothing new, but has it gained more urgency now?

Indranee Rajah: Yes, and the reason is that the pace of change has been accelerating. Digitalisation, new growth areas like sustainability and artificial intelligence (AI)… these are things that employers and employees have to grapple with, and hence the need to upskill, learn new skills – diverse skills – has accelerated.

Desmond Tan: We did a survey with about 2,000 respondents. About 13 per cent were worried about losing their jobs due to AI, and about 52 per cent felt that they may keep their jobs but the jobs were going to change, and therefore the need for reskilling is now more urgent.

Ang Yuit: Ten years ago we were talking about digitalisation, and many companies were going along; now we’re talking about AI, but the timeline is so much more compressed. So I think this is the right time to look at reskilling and have all these schemes.

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Khanna: One big initiative in the Budget is the change in SkillsFuture credits for mid-career workers aged 40 and above. Why the focus on this demographic?

Indranee: When you first come out of school, what you’ve learned should be able to take you through at least for another decade or more – whereas those who have already been in the workforce may not have caught up.

Tan: The Singapore Labour Force Report 2023 does suggest that of the long-term unemployed, a large proportion – 70 to 80 per cent – are workers above 40.

This is a group of people that have significant financial responsibility. Being concerned about losing their jobs is something very real. Yet they have to continue to work because they can’t afford to take on training. If they go on training, who is going to support their family?

Khanna: A lot of professionals, managerial, executives, and technicians (PMETs) say: “We’re also vulnerable to job disruption. Why don’t we get more assistance?”

Indranee: They would, if they are the right age group. When you just enter the job market, you’re already starting to learn, and hopefully your employer will be teaching you.

By the time you reach 40 or so, most would have reached a certain plateau. You’ve built up a good strong base, but things are changing. So giving them the opportunity to acquire new skills gives them a chance to strike out in a new direction or to deepen their current job base.

Khanna: Another SkillsFuture enhancement is the allowance of up to S$3,000 a month for 40-plus workers who do full-time courses. Is it practical for PMETs over 40?

Tan: I think a lot of PMETs, even those that are slightly higher paid, find that this is a very important assurance. To move into training, it would be a period of six to nine months – how do they sustain the family?

I think even higher-income earners will appreciate this support because it gives them the confidence to move into new skill sets, which may take some time.

Indranee: The S$3,000 is an allowance. It’s not meant to be a replacement of the salary that you were earning. It was sized looking at household expenses.

We also didn’t want to make it so large that it became a disincentive to look for a new job. You can become so comfortable just going for more training and more training, and getting an allowance which is effectively like a salary, and that may have the wrong signals and wrong consequences as well.

We can always review and see how it pans out, but we thought that this was the right figure to start with.

Khanna: Only one in three people over the age of 25 have used their SkillsFuture credits. Why is the take-up rate so low?

Tan: We did quite an in-depth study on why people find it difficult to embark on training. Finances are one reason. But there are three others.

The second is time: many workers can’t take time off from their work. The third is that they don’t know where to start.

Fourth, they find that even if they go through training – “What kind of recognition or reward do I get out of it?”

Khanna: Would companies – especially SMEs – be willing to let workers go for full-time training?

Ang: A full-time allowance is a great initiative. The concern from businesses is that, at up to S$3,000, is it such a strong incentive that some percentage of the workforce will go for this, and then you get a labour shortage?

If we can apply SkillsFuture and tie it in more with on-the-job training and on-the-job experience, I think that will result in a much better take-up.

What businesses sometimes cannot see is how a particular course impacts the business outcomes. And when they can’t see that, then they’d rather the employee focus on what is going to be productive.

Liew: Some of them with, let’s say, 10 people – 10 per cent going for training is quite significant. While for a company who has 20,000 people, (having) 10 per cent on training is a very manageable process.

They also feel that sometimes, if their employees went for the right training, they may not be able to retain them.

We can have a programme where if the employee went for such training, he will have to stay in his own company for one year, under some kind of incentivised pay or promotion, if his skill set is proven to be relevant.

Tan: If the employer does not support the workers, it’s very difficult for workers to take their own time to do it. That’s why in 2019, NTUC started the Company Training Committees, to support employers and businesses in transformation.

There are two other things. One is protected time off.  If we see that as an investment for your business productivity, I think employers should try to give some time support for workers to go for training.

Second is recognition of skills. Many workers go for training and when they come back, everything stays the same. So we’re quite happy that some companies recently introduced “skills allowance”.

Ang: We should look at having SkillsFuture-related courses that have tie-ins with industry attachment or training. That will also alleviate some of the challenges of manpower.

That makes businesses look at them and say: “Your skill is not just on paper, but you actually have real-life experience.”

Khanna: One thing an older worker mentioned is: “I shouldn’t have to start from zero. I already have some skill sets.”

Tan:  Even when reskilling, it doesn’t mean that workers start from zero. They have existing skill sets. The challenge is actually how they can move from where they are today, and how can we tap their experience and existing skills for the jobs that are in demand.

Liew: It depends. If you’re doing HR and transition to a different industry, your skill set and experience can probably translate. But if you’re doing something entirely different, that transition is more of a tall order.

If you’re going into a new field, that’s where it presents a challenge: that your expectations or aspirations must meet with reality.

Khanna: There is still ageism amongst Singapore companies. What more can the government do?

Ang: There is a lot that SMEs can do to improve our human capital processes. This is an area that Asme wants to look at and have companies upskill.

On ageism, I don’t really agree. Now I think it’s more a case of whether your skill is a match for what the company needs. No company will turn you down if you have experience in that needed area.

I think likely what is happening is that you have the certification or qualification, but in terms of your work experience, it may be missing.

That’s what we can do better. If we match skills with actual experience and hands-on work, and make it part of the skills requirements, then companies would be fighting over themselves just to hire you.

We are already so tight on manpower. We cannot afford to be choosy anymore.

Tan: The government has been trying to incentivise employers through credits as well as the tripartite guidelines for workplace fairness.

I’m looking forward to hard-coding it. We’re going to push out workplace fairness legislation to ensure employers will not discriminate against workers based on their age, but look at their credibility, their experience – and then they have a fair chance at almost any job.

Khanna: Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong indicated that Budget 2024 is only a first instalment in fulfilling the goals of Forward Singapore. What do you expect in subsequent instalments?

Liew: We’ve seen SkillsFuture being upsized with a new and clearer direction. In future Budgets, I hope that we can work on the employer side. Employers, especially SMEs, need a bit more help to bring the SkillsFuture take-up rate to a better level.

Indranee: DPM was talking about the plans of the Forward Singapore report as a whole, and those cover a variety of areas: economy, the social aspect, sustainability or stewardship, our social fabric, our unity as a nation.

This Budget focuses especially on workers and those above 40 because it’s an expression of belief and confidence in them, in our human capital and in Singaporeans. It’s also part of the evolution that we are making in our economy as Singaporeans live longer, as manpower gets tighter.

So if you ask what’s ahead: a whole range of things, not only limited to the economy. Our total fertility rate has fallen below one, we’re going to have to work very hard.

Ang: (In AI), I hope that we can focus more on being in the innovation space rather than just the end user, because I think it’s important to be leading rather than just using it.

In terms of skills, if we can tighten the integration of skills into businesses even further, that will really help the whole nationwide transformation.

Tan: There are two areas we are looking forward to. One is unemployment support – we are looking forward to the announcements of what it entails.

The second is caregiver support. Many workers face caregiver challenges, but we need them to enter the workforce. How can we give them more flexibility? Maybe in the next phase of Forward Singapore, we can come up with solutions.