NTUC calls for equal training opportunities for older workers to lift their job prospects

SINGAPORE - Employers should give older workers training opportunities equal to those of their younger peers.

National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How made this comment on Tuesday at a media doorstop on the sidelines of his visit to the Polar Puffs & Cakes production facility in Woodlands.

A recent survey by NTUC showed a decline in the training participation rate as one gets older. It had surveyed 1,000 respondents aged 20 years old and above between December 2022 and January 2023. 

It found that 58 per cent of those who were 55 and above attended training in the past year.

That percentage was lower than the 71 per cent observed for workers between 25 and 44 years old, and the 66 per cent for workers between 45 and 54 years old.

Mr Heng said a lack of training will lead to a job-skill mismatch that will negate efforts to raise the retirement and re-employment age, and may result in older workers not having enough savings for their retirement years. 

A lack of trained workers is also not in the business interests of companies, and their competitiveness will suffer as a result, he added.

Regarding the lower training rate among senior workers, Mr Heng said that older workers feel “employers may have certain prejudices and assumptions” about their lack of ability to pick up new skills or their lack of willingness to learn, and therefore “operate on the basis of these assumptions”.

To address this, NTUC urged companies to set up Company Training Committees (CTCs) to look into training programmes for their employees, including older staff.

“The essence of the CTCs is to have workers or worker representatives of unions work together with the company to determine what will be the training requirements going forward, and then work together to schedule the workers to go for the training,” Mr Heng said.

At home-grown bakery Polar Puffs & Cakes, about 10 per cent of its current staff of 380 employees are over 63 years old. The company decided not to have a retirement age, which means the percentage of its older employees will only get higher each year.

Mr Francis Looi, chief executive of Polar Puffs & Cakes, said the company adopts an age-neutral training policy for all its employees.

“If they do not have the skill, we will just train them,” he said, adding that “it is training them for the position, not because they are young or old”.

Mr Albert Aw, 57, is a Polar employee who has benefited from the company’s training and career progression programmes. He has worked at Polar for the past 34 years.

Starting out as a trainee, Mr Aw attended baking courses, among others, over the years, including those outside his job scope, to upskill. Now, Mr Aw trains new staff and hopes to pass on his knowledge to his younger colleagues.

All Polar staff have to attend at least three training sessions a year.

Long-time staff with the company can apply for another training programme, which allows them to take up courses to learn new skills outside their current job scope. For example, a baker can take a human resources course and venture into a related position within the company when he gets the certification, Mr Looi added.

Polar also adjusted its pace of training for older workers so that they can keep up with the courses. Upon recognising that some employees may have difficulty understanding English, training manuals and e-learning modules were translated into Mandarin.

“We believe that if staff are not trained, they are not going to be able to contribute to the company,” Mr Looi said. 

Mr Ang Yuit, vice-president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) like Polar provide greater opportunities for older workers.

“Job roles are usually broader in SMEs, resulting in more leeway for an older worker to fit in where they may not find it so easy to fit in in a multinational or a large local firm,” Mr Ang added.

He said the older workforce has a great deal of experience and know-how that businesses can tap, “if they figure out how to tap it”.

Besides age-inclusive training programmes, NTUC is urging companies to redesign jobs to be age-universal so that anyone can do the work.

For example, Polar has adapted work processes to support its older workers. According to Mr Looi, if the work process requires a worker to lift heavy items, and the worker does not have the strength to do it, then the company will try to automate the process.

Some other key concerns highlighted by older workers in the survey included, for example, whether there were other types of work, such as micro-jobs, that they could still do, should they want to.

Under the micro-jobs scheme, seniors get paid for simple tasks such as delivering meals or carrying out medication reminders to fellow seniors in their community.