SGUnited Traineeship Applications and Matches

Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Manpower since the set-up of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres (a) how many Singaporeans have sought assistance at the centres; (b) how many successful job and traineeship matches have been made; and (c) how many training and skills placements have been made.

Thank you. The National Jobs Council is coordinating efforts to provide job, traineeship, attachment as well as training opportunities for jobseekers under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.

The SGUnited Traineeships and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programmes were introduced to provide company-hosted traineeship and attachment opportunities for recent graduates and mid-career jobseekers respectively. These programmes aim to help jobseekers who are unable to find permanent jobs in the current job market, gain industry-relevant skills and build professional networks so as to boost their employability.

The SGUnited Traineeships Programme was launched on 1 June 2020, and the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme, on 1 August 2020. Workforce Singapore and its programme manager, the Singapore Business Federation or SBF, have worked closely with host companies to open up earlier-approved traineeship positions as company attachments for mid-career individuals under the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme as well.

By now, over 20,500 traineeship and company attachment opportunities have been made available. The top five sectors which together account for more than half the openings are: financial services, infocomm technology and media, professional services, wholesale trade and electronics. More than 2,800 local jobseekers have been placed.

Although the focus must now be for the host companies to secure more successful placements, SBF continues to accept new applications by companies to host attachments for mid-career individuals that commence before 31 March 2021. The SBF has a dedicated team of 25, of which 80% are filled and will be reaching full strength by end-October.

I had earlier updated the House that SBF undertakes a rigorous screening process and scrutinises each application to ensure that host organisations structure their traineeships and attachments appropriately with clear development plans, so that participants can have a positive and meaningful experience. How quickly an employer's application is approved depends in part on the comprehensiveness of its submission. Factoring in time for SBF to seek clarifications and enhancement, most applications are approved within four weeks. This is, however, not a key bottleneck right now as there are already many existing openings available to jobseekers. After suitable matches are found and necessary supporting documents are submitted to SBF, the traineeship or company attachment can commence.

To help our local jobseekers access the available jobs and skills opportunities, we have brought career matching services closer to the heartlands. We have launched the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres in phases. Since early July and by end-August, one had been set up across all 24 HDB towns. Although all satellite career centres were only in operation from end-August, Career Ambassadors have advised about 4,200 jobseekers by now.

Jobseekers are reached through multiple channels and assisted through a variety of means. It is therefore more useful to consider their collective impact. Between January and August this year, we have provided career matching services to about 44,200 jobseekers through the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres as well as WSG and NTUC's e2i's five permanent career centres.

Since the launch of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package in April 2020, we have placed 33,100 jobseekers into job, traineeship, attachment and training opportunities. This is in spite of a two-month lockdown and the deep economic recession.

We will continue to curate more opportunities while seeking to increase placements of jobseekers.

I thank the Minister for her reply to the question. My concern is about the resourcing to process the number of opportunities available. I think it is heartening that there are many opportunities available, but given the 25 staff at SBF right now, processing over a thousand host organisations base on the statistics, that is about 40 host organisations per SBF staff.

So, would the Minister not agree that for those who have lost their jobs and everyone in the family has lost their jobs, we would need to increase or a ramping up of resourcing and expedited channel to help them access these job opportunities as soon as possible? Would the Minister consider creating a priority or fast-track channel for trainee applicants under the traineeship programmes whose families have no other working or income earning individuals?

Mr Speaker, I thank Ms Carrie Tan for her concern. In the beginning, SBF did encounter quite a lot of difficulties because it had responded to the opportunity to curate, to manage the SGUnited Traineeship programmes. It wanted very much to be of service to their members – meaning the companies that potentially can host these opportunities – as well as to jobseekers.

So, I would acknowledge that in the earlier stages, it did take SBF quite a while to assemble the team and to process the applications from the host companies.

I would also say that because the programme was very new at the time, what constitutes a meaningful traineeship experience, was something that was still being worked out. But, I am glad to say that by now, all these kinks have been ironed out. SBF certainly expanded their team and, as I had mentioned earlier in my reply, it will be at full strength by the end of this month.

Right now, if you look at the total number of opportunities that have been made available, I think that period is past. Right now, the focus has to be on the companies making these opportunities available to jobseekers, letting the jobseekers know that they are interested to take in people as trainees or as mid-career attachments. Right now, the action is less on SBF and more on the companies to get this done. So, it is within the companies, their own HR teams that have to follow through with the approved positions, advertise the positions, collate the CVs, the interest that have been made known to them through various sources, and then, arrange for the interviews to take place as well as to make the selection and then follow through with SBF.

So, right now, a lot of the action has to be undertaken by the host companies, themselves.

I should also add another point to Ms Carrie Tan's concern. SBF is one of the many partners that we work with. It is not the only one that is involved in this whole network that is trying to bring together jobseekers as well as companies that still have openings. Other trade associations and chambers are involved. The whole network of Career Centres, including the 24 in the HDB Towns that I mentioned earlier in my reply, are also involved.

If you add all of them together, the resourcing has increased quite considerably. Today, if you look at the overall opportunities that have been curated, there are about 117,500. We have been able to place 33,000 or so. So, the opportunities are available. The next step as to whether the job matching can happen is no longer just a matter of facilitation. The jobseeker must feel that he wants the job; the employer must feel that he can give the jobseeker an opportunity. And that is not something that you bring about purely through more facilitation. Although, I will give the Member the assurance that if more resources are needed in that regard, certainly, we have no hesitation to enhance them.

Sir, I thank the Minister for the reply as well as commend MOM for a very good initiative – the traineeship programme. I just want to ask whether we are thinking ahead, now that many of them have secured traineeships; what is the next step for them? Are we also encouraging the companies to convert these traineeships into permanent jobs?

Would MOM also do some early survey to find out from companies how many of the trainees would be retained as permanent employees and how many may be released, so that they can better plan the next stage of helping the young graduates?

Mr Speaker, I thank the hon Member for his concern. Indeed, we are following up closely with the companies to have a sense of what they are thinking of for the future. I would say that if you look at the range of opportunities that have been made available, quite clearly, a lot of the companies are looking ahead into the future and seeing that this is a good time to expose more jobseekers to their industries or to the jobs that previously were perhaps less well sought after by the jobseekers. So, they do have that objective in mind.

As to whether they can follow through to offer the trainees a specific job, an opening, probably will depend on two things: one, whether they see a need to fulfil that position on a permanent basis and that will depend on their assessment of the business outlook; second, I think they will also assess the specific trainee, whether during this period, the trainee has exhibited good ability to gel with the team as well as to contribute to the organisation.

Some of the ways in which the Government is trying to be helpful and to nudge the employers in this direction is through the introduction of the Jobs Growth incentive. This Jobs Growth incentive, essentially, encourages employers to expand their hiring and if the wage support that is provided is able to provide that additional resourcing to the employers, they could also bring forward their hiring. That is what, we think, will potentially encourage the employers to think in that direction.

Sir, I would like to ask the Minister if the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres are focused mainly at helping PMETs or does it include non PMETs as well. I have quite a number of non PMET residents who are seeking jobs but find that most of the jobs matched by SGUnited's Jobs Programmes, including the traineeships, seem to be targeted more at PMETs. Is there another channel that non PMETs, and specifically unskilled jobseekers, should approach instead?

Mr Speaker, there are a variety of jobs that are being made available. I mentioned earlier that total opportunities that have been curated under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package is about 117,000. Of these, 70% are jobs and the jobs are of different nature – some are long-term jobs, some are short-term jobs; some of these jobs are suitable for PMETs, some of these jobs are suitable for non PMETs.

At the satellite Career Centres, as is the case for all the other touchpoints we have with jobseekers, all these jobs can be made available. For some of the non PMET jobseekers, we understand, for example, language may be a barrier. So, even in these career-resourcing centres, there are colleagues who speak Mandarin or speak other languages that will be of help to these jobseekers. So, there is a variety.

The Member is incorrect to think that most of the jobs that have been matched are for PMETs. Our experience is that matching people into PMET jobs takes longer. The reason is very simple: if you are a PMET, you see yourself as having a set of skills that you would like to find the best match for in an employer that recognises your experience and is also able to pay a premium for those skills that you have. It has actually been easier to match people in non PMET roles. I do not have the numbers offhand, but I can assure you that the matching for non PMET has actually been the majority of those under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.