MORE Singaporeans are being encouraged to join the construction industry to help ease the shortage of tradesmen and foremen.

The move is also aimed at relying less on foreign workers who currently fill the bulk of entry-level positions in Singapore.

To woo local workers, the Government will help defray the costs of training by subsidising courses at the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Academy in order to re-skill and turn workers into trained electricians and construction plant operators.

The training will also equip new entrants with knowledge so they can take advantage of opportunities to become supervisors, managers, executives and technicians - known as PMETs - who typically earn more.

New local entrants can expect to earn between $1,400 and $1,700 a month while PMETS can take home between $1,600 and $3,500 per month.

Together with partners like the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), BCA will tap into the recently launched $600 million Government programme - dubbed the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience or Spur - to fund the training schemes and subsidies.

'We need to have more locals who can stay for the long term in the industry to form a core team to lead the transient foreign workforce that comes and goes,' explained BCA's deputy CEO (Industry and Corporate Development) Lam Siew Wah.

Currently, there are about 200,000 construction workers in Singapore - about one in five are Singaporeans. The Government hopes to double the number in the long term.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.