Have independent party assess workplace safety

Mr Goh Yang Miang's suggestion for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to create a small number of assessment centres that focus on assessments of workplace safety and health training is a good one ("Separate centres to train, assess workplace safety"; Monday).

However, as with problems highlighted by Mr Goh that are associated with some profit-driven and profit-minded, accredited training centres, the same issues can also plague private assessment centres.

Therefore, I suggest that these assessment centres be operated directly under the umbrella of the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council, WSH Institute or MOM.

In this way, while training centres provide the necessary training using the Singapore Workforce Development Agency or Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications guidelines and framework, the assessment centres operate the assessments independently.

They can change the sets of assessment questions frequently such that candidates will not be able to "cheat".

This is akin to driving centres providing driving lessons and, at the end of the day, learner drivers being assessed by independent Traffic Police-appointed assessors.

In this way, the competency level of the workforce can be raised, and cheating problems can be reduced or eliminated.

Chua Tiong Guan

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 15, 2016, with the headline Have independent party assess workplace safety. Subscribe