Debated in Parliament on 14 Oct 2020.
Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Manpower whether there are advantages to merging Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) so as to eliminate the overlap between the two organisations and further optimise the efficiency of the resources in both organisations.
The mission of Workforce Singapore (WSG) is to provide job facilitation services and support the transformation of the local workforce and industry for the future economy.
As part of its role, WSG's efforts range from providing digital job matching platforms (such as MyCareersFuture), the implementation of employment facilitation schemes (such as SGUnited Jobs and Traineeships, and Professional Conversion Programmes), and the direct provision of career coaching to clients.
For direct client-facing functions, WSG has overall responsibility for designing the framework for service delivery, and the allocation of roles to strategic partners such as the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), private career matching providers (Ingeus and MAXIMUS), SGEnable (for Persons with Disabilities), and Yellow Ribbon Singapore (for ex-offenders).
e2i brings certain strengths to the job facilitation ecosystem. e2i's strong connections with the labour movement allows it to leverage the unions' networks to provide support to workers, as well as to partner employers to recruit and train local jobseekers for their manpower needs. Of the five national career centres, three are operated directly by WSG, while another two are operated by e2i. The five centres serve different geographical areas, but clients are free to request for their cases to be served by another centre, or by the private career matching providers. For ground activities such as career fairs, WSG and e2i coordinate closely such that their activities complement each other's.
WSG and e2i also meet regularly at the senior leadership level to coordinate their strategy and operations.
There are merits to having more than one provider in the employment facilitation ecosystem. It helps to spur innovation and improvements, and service models that can meet the varied needs of our local jobseekers. For example, Ingeus introduced a new way for companies to identify talent for senior executive-level roles. Ingeus asked these companies to provide problem statements. Selected jobseekers were then invited to address these problem statements, and in doing so, pitch and showcase their skills and expertise to the companies. This novel approach was well received by the companies and enhanced job matching. At the same time, it is important for WSG to retain operational knowledge of the business of job facilitation, so that it is able to oversee the ecosystem of providers and innovate new schemes effectively.
WSG will continue to work closely with all its partners, to ensure that the needs of every local jobseeker are the foremost priority of each partner, and that they are collectively served to the best of each partner’s ability.
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