1. Good morning to everyone. I am happy to join you here at the inaugural SkillsFuture SME Conference 2023, where many in the audience are industry leaders and SMEs.
2. Since 2020, we have had this intent for the SkillsFuture movement to go beyond individuals and support enterprises and enterprise centered SkillsFuture movements. It is necessary for us to take this step because we want to make sure that the training provided is relevant for companies, so that employees who go through the training will be able to reap the benefits and find that the training they get is purposeful. When it is supported and recognised by the employers, the employees who are going through the training will be more motivated.
SMEs: the backbone of our economy
3. The SkillsFuture SME Conference signifies the importance of SMEs in our SkillsFuture ecosystem. As SMEs employ the majority of our workforce in Singapore, they have a significant role to play in encouraging lifelong learning and upskilling. Upskilling provides opportunities for Singaporeans to reskill and upskill throughout their careers. This is why SMEs are at the heart of our SkillsFuture efforts today.
4. SMEs are increasingly embracing the SkillsFuture movement and have stepped up training participation in recent years, despite business uncertainties during the pandemic. Some encouraging figures to share with you.
- The number of SMEs who participated in SSG-funded training has doubled from around 9,500 in 2020 to 19,000 in 2022; and
- The number of SME employees who benefitted from this training rose from around 55,000 in 2020 to close to 100,000 in 2022.
5. So both the SME and SME's employees have benefitted and gained in numbers over the last two years. These are encouraging trends. I urge our SMEs to keep up the good work in developing the skills of your employees.
Employers to play a proactive role in reskilling and upskilling the workforce
6. Companies have much to benefit from upskilling their employees. A study by the Ministry of Trade and Industry1 in 2021 showed that there are positive returns to firms who invest in employees' training. For a ten percentage-point increase in the proportion of local workforce sponsored for training:
- Labour productivity improved by 2.2% on average over two years; and
- Retention of local employees improved by 0.6 percentage-point in the year of training.
- Annual revenue was 0.7% higher on average yearly in the year of training and three years after training;
7. Studies conducted in other countries also yielded similar results. The data is clear – employer investment in workforce training can yield positive business outcomes such as higher revenue, productivity, and talent retention. I believe that companies are increasingly recognising this benefit too.
- We are seeing new participation from companies in SSG-funded training programmes. Amongst companies who used their SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC) on SSG-funded training in the last three years, almost half were first-time claimants. We hope more will come onboard.
8. To build a strong culture of skills upgrading at the workplace, the adoption of skills-based hiring and employment practices is key. Around the world, we have seen large companies such as Google and IBM shifting towards this, by emphasising less on degree qualifications in their recruitment practices and creating skills-based career progression pathways. In our engagements with other enterprises, like LinkedIn, we also find that other companies, big and small, are moving towards skills-based hiring and employment practices.
9. I encourage our companies to consider making similar shifts. In the hiring process, factor in the skills of the candidate instead of focusing only on past academic qualifications and job titles. In career development, think about how to better recognise and reward based on skills. I know it's not easy but know that there is a community that is here to help. Doing so can help widen access to a more diverse pool of talent and improve worker retention.
10. I hope to see more employers playing a greater role in encouraging lifelong learning, alongside the government and our tripartite partners. On its part, SSG will continue to support companies in skills training and workforce transformation efforts.
Piloting new models of partnership with industry
11. We understand some of our SMEs may find it more challenging to participate in skills training due to the tight manpower situation, lack of resources and scale. We are piloting different models to see how we can best address these issues, taking into account the unique contexts of each sector.
12. To scale up training participation across SMEs, SSG has been expanding partnerships with SkillsFuture Queen Bee companies such as Grab, Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital and DBS Bank. The Queen Bees will help to mobilise SMEs within their networks to participate in skills development programmes. These include training programmes curated by the Queen Bees and skills advisory services to help the SMEs develop plans for enterprise and workforce transformation.
- To date, more than 2,300 enterprises, most of whom are SMEs, have benefitted from the sharing of resources and expertise by the SkillsFuture Queen Bees.
13. To help SMEs better articulate their skills demands and gear training provisions towards addressing the barriers, SSG is partnering trade associations and professional bodies as Skills Development Partners (SDPs). These are in the sectors of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Engineering Services and HR.
14. The SDPs will inform the SMEs on in-demand sectoral skills and also develop skills credentialling pathways that are recognised by the industry. This helps employees acquire industry-relevant skills and facilitates recognition of employees' skills.
- The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) will be launching a new framework for Engineering Chartership in Sustainability, This sets out the skills and competency requirements to be certified as a chartered engineer in sustainability. These requirements can be met by completing micro-credentials, or short courses, offered by our Institutes of Higher Learning.
- The Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) is working to expand the adoption of its IHRP Certifications to equip HR professionals with future-ready skills to empower their organisations with progressive HR practices. The IHRP Certifications will be eligible for SkillsFuture Credit by the end of this year.
15. At this year's Committee of Supply debate, I mentioned that we will initiate a Workplace Skills Recognition pilot. This will start with the Retail and Food Services sectors. This pilot facilitates recognition of skills acquired at the workplace towards relevant certifications, reducing the need for employees to take time off for external training.
- I am glad to hear that more than 30 companies have registered their interest to take part in this pilot since its launch on 1 June 23.
- Commonwealth Concepts, one of the companies involved in the pilot, will be sharing more on their experience later.
16. I would like to thank our industry partners for stepping up as our SkillsFuture Queen Bees and SDPs and participating in the Workplace Skills Recognition pilot. These schemes are only possible because of the good partners we can find. We will continue to work closely with industry and tripartite partners to experiment with new, innovative models to reskill and upskill our workforce at speed and scale. We also welcome new ideas from our partners on how we can do things better, including those who are here today.
Conclusion
17. This conference today marks the successful conclusion of the SkillsFuture Festival which started on 4th July. I know its been a busy two months for SSG and its partners as we have had over 205,000 people and 1,300 enterprises participating in the various events.
18. Strengthening our SkillsFuture ecosystem is a collective effort. We can achieve much more by working together, and it starts with sharing our experiences and learning from one another I think amongst the SMEs here, there is a lot more we can do together.
19. More importantly, I hope that the conference will inspire you to take action and go further in developing your employees and upskilling them for the good of your business. Collectively, we can shift SkillsFuture to a higher gear and unlock even better outcomes for our Singaporeans and our SMEs.
20. I wish everyone a fruitful conference ahead. Thank you.
Footnotes
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Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry (2021). Firm Level Returns to Employer-Sponsored Training. Economic Survey of Singapore Second Quarter 2021 Feature Article, MTI.