THURSDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2017 – People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Young PAP (YP) and the PAP Policy Forum (PPF), have jointly written a Position Paper, “Enhancing Singaporeans’ employability and competitiveness.” The paper intends to generate inputs for the coming Budget 2017 debates.
It also signifies a PAP activist-led ground-up initiative conducted over the last four months and crafted in response to challenges faced by Singaporeans. Many focus group dialogues were conducted to collect the views of activists across all ages and gender.
The paper (please see attached) offers its recommendations with emphasis on students, young adults and/or new workers, mid-career professionals and the Silver generation. These groups were chosen as they widely represent the Singapore workforce.
The recommendations are:
STUDENTS: Introducing a dynamic, more generalist school syllabus which imparts soft skills, with an emphasis on career diversity and to facilitate internships from secondary schools onwards.
NEW WORKERS: Expanding the Industry Scholarship Scheme and to help more industry bodies create an eco-system of accreditation for skills and specialization.
MID-CAREER PROFESSIONALS: Supporting development of regional and global workforce and leaders, and to increase resources available to displaced (PMETs) to enable customised guidance.
SILVER WORKERS: Incentives to encourage companies to re-design jobs for an ageing workforce and to set up a new fund to provide venture and social capital to Silver Enterprises.
The representatives of both PAP wings hope that the recommendations in the position paper will be considered by the Government. Mr Benjamin Tay, PPF Council Chairman, said: “The Paper reflects a positive co-operation between wings of the PAP to work together to generate a paper to better support fellow Singaporeans. We hope that these suggestions will be taken into measure when the Government decides on the Budget 2017 so Singapore continues to be exceptional and ensures fellow Singaporeans continue to remain competitive and employable.”
Agreeing, Mr Rahul Shah, YP Organising Secretary added, “It has been a thought-provoking and enriching process to see PAP Activists, both young and old, working together to offer changes in the policy-making process. We hope that the ideas generated would be considered and implemented for the benefit of all Singaporeans.”
Click here to the paper.
