SINGAPORE - Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon has called on companies not to forget the long-term goal to grow and expand their businesses through deep industry transformation, even as they cope with near-term challenges like the coronavirus outbreak.
He pointed to two schemes that can help companies to redesign jobs, improve workers' skills and transform their businesses, so that they can swiftly exploit the opportunities when the economy recovers.
The two schemes are the enhanced Enterprise Development Grant and the new SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit.
In the past few weeks, unions have been working with company managements to see how best they can use the downtime to upskill workers, he said, citing Copthorne King's Hotel.
The hotel has worked with the Food Drinks and Allied Workers Union to multi-skill its workers through the Hotel Job Redesign Place-and-Train programme.
Dr Koh acknowledged that some companies and workers have expressed difficulty in navigating available and appropriate courses, and that they hope the training received could be better recognised by employers and the industry for career progression.
"There is a need for government agencies to work with tripartite partners and HR (human resource) practitioners to streamline the approach and make the 'customer journey' for lifelong learning an easier one to navigate," he said.
Dr Koh, who is also deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), noted that 352 companies across various industries have formed Company Training Committees (CTCs) to drive transformation.
Multinational corporations like Energizer and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) like Fong's Engineering have leveraged such CTCs to formulate and strengthen their transformation plans, he added.
Meanwhile, other MPs highlighted the need for greater support for employers in training workers.
Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC) lauded the focus in Budget 2020 on enhancing the role of companies in developing their staff, such as through the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit scheme.
These measures which encourage businesses to transform and redesign jobs, will drive real productivity and value for both employers and employees, she said.
She also welcomed the support for mid-career workers in their 40s and 50s.
But current employment practices and policies may not be set up to support employers and employees to manage changes and transition for recruiting and reskilling mid-career workers, she noted.
"More needs to be done to support employers in transforming the people policies and practices to manage the changing nature of work," she said, citing transition and on-boarding programmes for mid-career employees joining new organisations and industries.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio GRC) was in support of encouraging companies to send their employees for training and reskilling, but noted that many smaller companies are generally unable to do so.
"Some of these small firms are almost firefighting every day and they are so stretched for manpower, it is impossible to send workers for training," he said, adding that these firms may have limited financial resources for training.
He asked the Government to assist small companies in their training efforts in ways similar to how it has worked with large anchor enterprises to support training across sectors.
