Debated in Parliament on 6 Aug 2019.
Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Manpower what is the progress in running professional conversion programmes for retiring mainstream teachers and other professionals keen to take up a new career as pre-school educators.
Mr Speaker, to support the expansion of the early childhood care and education sector, Workforce Singapore (WSG), SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) jointly offer the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Pre-school Teachers and the Place-and-Train Programme (PnT) for Educarers, under the Adapt and Grow initiative.
These programmes are designed to equip mid-career individuals with the necessary qualifications and skills for a fulfilling career in the early childhood care and education sector. Participating pre-schools receive salary and training support for their newly-hired employees. In the past three years, more than 2,000 jobseekers have been placed with over 400 employers in the early childhood care and education sector.
As the early childhood care and education sector continues to expand, we hope to attract more mid-career individuals looking to pursue careers as Pre-school Teachers and Educarers. WSG, SSG and ECDA will continue with efforts to raise awareness of these Adapt and Grow programmes and encourage pre-schools and interested jobseekers to take up these programmes.
I thank the Minister for the reply. It is heartening to know that 2,000 have been placed in pre-school centres since we started this. What are the target numbers that we are looking at in order to fill the demand in our pre-school sector? My second question is, in terms of salary and professional development, are we going to review that, so that while they are still in-service, they can continue to undergo professional development programmes that can be overseen under the Adapt and Grow initiative.
Mr Speaker, the Ministry that is most appropriate to answer this question is MSF. But as it turns out, I do interact with Staff there quite regularly, wearing my other hat, the one looking after Marriage and Parenthood. The points that the Member raised are important, indeed. Of course, when we place jobseekers into new roles such as pre-school teachers or educarers, we do want to see that they have good career development, too. Indeed, if the career prospects were not sufficiently attractive, then it would be very difficult to attract them to take up these training opportunities as well.
What I can say is that MSF, through ECDA, has been very focused on this. There are, as part of the commitments to the support given to Anchor Operators, obligations on the part of the operators as employers, to improve the attractiveness of the jobs. But I think a more detailed explanation on this is probably better provided by MSF.
PAPERCUTS