Addressing Shortage of Licensed Electrical Workers

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how are the Ministry and the Energy Market Authority addressing the shortage of licensed electrical workers; and (b) what measures are in place to ensure succession planning given the ageing profile of current licence holders.

Licensed Electric Workers (LEWs) perform tasks, such as designing, testing and commissioning of electrical systems. There are around 3,700 LEWs in Singapore today. Among them, 1,400 LEWs are aged 60 and above, and are still actively practising.

To ensure we continue to have sufficient LEWs to meet our needs, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has been working closely with the Institutes of Higher Learning and industry partners to attract younger persons to join the licensed electrician profession. This involves enhancements to curriculum and internship experiences. For example, EMA has partnered the Institute of Technical Education to launch a Technical Engineer Diploma in Electrical Engineering (Clean Energy), which helps higher NITEC students qualify for a LEW licence. EMA is also introducing an Internship Training Plan, to provide clarity on the work experience requirements for student interns to attain the LEW licence. This plan enhances the internship experience for students from the relevant engineering programmes.

EMA is similarly enhancing its support for mid-career workers with relevant skills to join the LEW workforce, and for existing LEWs who wish to progress to a higher class of licence. For example, there are some workers who lack formal academic qualifications, yet possess the relevant skills and experiences to be a LEW. EMA and the Singapore Institute of Power and Gas are enhancing existing preparatory courses to help such workers qualify for a license.

EMA will monitor the supply and demand for LEWs closely and will develop additional measures to boost supply, if needed.