Tan See Leng
Singapore
“We are aware of the Singapore Workplace Report 2026, produced by the Singapore Institute of Directors and Gallup, and we are studying its findings.”
“The Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation (Taskforce) actively reaches out to all retrenched local employees. In 2025, 77% of Mandatory Retrenchment Notifications (MRNs) were submitted at least seven days ahead of the employee's last working day and 73% of MRNs were submitted at least two weeks ahead.”
“From 2022 to 2025, vacancy rates for technical maintenance roles in the real estate services sector, which includes facilities management, have been lower than the overall job vacancy rate, except in 2025 (see Table 1).”
“The Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) works with sector agencies to determine the courses which are required by the respective industries. The SWDA currently funds more than 100 courses, spanning a wide range of mental health-related fields.”
“In the first quarter of 2026, the profile of retrenched residents aged 50 to 59 was broadly similar to the profile of all retrenched residents, predominantly comprising professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) and were mainly from wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, financial and insurance services and profession…”
“In 2025, around 4,200 resident professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) aged 45 to 59 were retrenched, higher than 3,200 in 2024 and 3,500 in 2023. Their six-month re-entry rate remained stable at 48.5% in 2025, compared with 48.9% in 2024 and 50.1% in 2023.”
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“To this end, SWDA will also work to reduce information asymmetries in the labour market to facilitate more efficient job matching. MyCareersFuture.gov.sg will continue to be our national jobs bank, where good jobs are visible, accessible and intelligently matched to jobseekers. To strengthen the pipeline of quality job listings, MOM, SWDA and sector agencies will work together to encourage more companies to list vacancies on the portal. Today, there are already over 60,000 job postings published on MyCareersFuture. We aspire to reach 100,000 job postings in 12 months from SWDA's establishment. We have forged partnerships with five online job portals. Singaporeans can use verified employment history and training data in their Careers and Skills Passport to apply for jobs on these job portals. The results are promising. Applicants with verified credentials are 1.5 times more likely to be shortlisted by hirers. In line with SWDA's expanded mandate, we will build ecosystem enablers, such as data sharing mechanisms and accreditation frameworks, to facilitate faster and better job matches. The fourth pillar: catering to diverse and ever-changing needs. Several Members have asked how SWDA will serve the diverse needs of workers and employers. Ms Yeo Wan Ling, Dr Hamid Razak, Ms Elysa Chen, Mr Patrick Tay, Mr Melvin Yong, Ms He Ting Ru and Ms Jessica Tan have asked about worker segments, such as caregivers, seniors, persons with disabilities, ex-offenders and those who have experienced health setbacks. We will partner community organisations, like SG Enable, Yellow Ribbon Singapore and Community Development Councils, to reach the more vulnerable segments.”
“We will make good quality career guidance services more accessible to the broad middle of workers and equip them with data-driven insights on jobs and skills so that they can undertake the right training that connects them to the opportunities that they are seeking. We will look at tying course funding more closely to demand signals so that training translates into better career prospects. The calls from Mr Darryl David, Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Shawn Loh and Assoc Prof Terence Ho to tighten the nexus between training grants and employment outcomes are directionally aligned with our plans. Dr Neo Kok Beng's suggestion for SWDA to partner professional institutions to align training to professional accreditations will also help to ensure that the skills acquired are recognised by the industry and can pave the way for career progression. We are also supporting Singaporeans to acquire the skills and the perspectives needed for a globalised economy. The OMIP that Mr Tiong talked about allows companies to send to Singaporeans on overseas postings to build first-hand knowledge of international markets and bring these insights back home. We agree that such schemes can be made accessible to benefit even more Singaporeans and we had announced at the Committee of Supply this year that we will be expanding OMIP to young professionals even earlier in their careers. Supporting our workers to acquire skills, experience and career agility is only part of the equation. To maximise their potential, workers must also be able to signal their skills and experience to employers, be matched to jobs that make use of these skills and experience and to be rewarded fairly.”
“This now brings me to the core of SWDA's mandate and that is to support Singaporeans at every stage of their careers through promoting lifelong learning, strengthening their career health and enhancing access to good jobs. Dr Wan Rizal identified two distinct gaps that SWDA must close. The first-job gap for fresh graduates and the career transition gap for mid-careerists. Mr Darryl David highlighted that students often make decisions about courses and career pathways without a clear understanding of labour market realities. Mr Patrick Tay, Mr Desmond Choo and Ms Jessica Tan also raised concerns on how SWDA will support entry-level hiring amidst business restructuring and AI-driven change. On supporting fresh graduates to get their first jobs, I agree with Dr Wan Rizal and Mr Darryl David that we cannot wait until students graduate before we intervene. SWDA will work with IHLs and MOE to bring industry exposure upstream so that our students can have a clearer picture of the labour market well before they graduate. I am not confident that we can go all the way to the secondary school as suggested by a Member here, but we certainly will go upstream to bring the industry exposure to our undergraduates. This means more systematic pathways into industry attachments and clearer signals on skills and roles in demand. At the same time, we will review measures to better support graduates who face difficulties in securing employment. To support mid-careerists to chart their careers amidst a fast-evolving world, SWDA will empower them to take charge and strengthen their career health.”
“First, unlike what Mr Tiong shared earlier on, there are significant guardrails to ensuring that SkillsFuture courses are top quality, with industry playing a big role in ensuring the relevance of training. Our trade associations and chambers, and professional bodies, they come together to help curate and signpost courses and some employers serve as SkillsFuture Queen Bees to provide training for other companies, including SMEs in their respective sectors. As SWDA, we will work with industry to play an even bigger role, which also brings me to my second point. I think Mr Tiong, perhaps, may not have fully understood. He has over-simplified SkillsFuture. It is not just an individual credit scheme. SkillsFuture sits alongside the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit, which employers can use to send their workers for training. These employers and individuals need to co-pay for training programmes, whether through their credits or out-of-pocket, and they must also invest their time and effort. This creates skin in the game. Companies and workers must choose the best courses worth their while and training providers must regularly up the game to compete. The Government, of course, plays a role in regulating the provider, the course and adult educator as well. And as pointed out by Ms Jessica Tan, our success depends on the ecosystem: on the individuals, employers and other stakeholders and partners playing a big role. This ecosystem is, therefore, central to the SkillsFuture movement and will continue to be so under SWDA. As Mr Darryl David rightly pointed out, SkillsFuture is fundamentally an instrument of economic mobility and employability.”
“But SkillsFuture is much more than just training for industry. SkillsFuture is a national movement to promote a culture of lifelong learning. Cultivating the habit of lifelong learning matters. Remember I kept emphasising earlier on about getting everyone to have that mindset change. So, how do we initiate them, how do we start them into that habit, that matters. In response to Assoc Prof Terence Ho's question, lifelong learning that is not targeted at employment will still come under SWDA's purview. SWDA will work with agencies, such as the People's Association on the curation of such programmes. And we encourage all Singaporeans to learn not just for their current job, or the next job, but also in their areas of interest. Not all training leads to immediate employment and wage gains. And so, the SkillsFuture catalogue includes some interest-based courses. However, when it comes to funding, we do make a distinction, a very clear distinction between industry-oriented and interest-based courses. While the base tier of SkillsFuture Credit is applicable to a wide range of courses, including those for personal interests, Government funding for course fees is only applicable for courses that offer skills relevant to that specific industry, which will support the workforce's upskilling needs. The additional SkillsFuture Credit for mid-careerists is further scoped to courses that meet more stringent criteria on employability outcomes and industry relevance. On a third group, connecting and matching training to good jobs, it is essential that SWDA's good work is closely linked to industry and of top tier quality. I would like to address two misconceptions from Mr Kenneth Tiong's speech.”
“Mr Shawn Loh rightly highlighted the importance of preserving the strong relationship between IHLs and the SkillsFuture movement. And Assoc Prof Terence Ho asked how we will ensure that IHLs will continue to develop as institutions of lifelong learning. Through MOE's joint oversight of SWDA, we will continue to deepen this relationship, strengthen complementarity between IHLs and private training providers and improve coordination between CET and pre-employment training. To address Ms He Ting Ru's question on how SWDA might manage the reporting relationship to two Ministries, MOM will be the parent Ministry of SWDA, but the joint oversight arrangement with MOE, that means between myself and Minister Desmond Lee, will bring the IHLs into closer alignment with our workforce agenda, ensuring that skills development is pursued in a coherent way. Members of the House, this is not a two-headed monster. This is a two-horse chariot, pulling in the same direction, charging ahead. [Applause.] Mr Saktiandi and Mr Giam asked about the costs. The 2016 restructuring of WDA into two separate Statutory Boards did not require additional funding from the Ministry of Finance. Similarly, the merger also not require additional budget allocation. There will be some costs incurred for branding, marketing and systems integration. These costs would have been budgeted for any regular refreshes, even if there was no merger. These costs will be managed within the existing budgets of SSG and WSG, and their reserves. On the second point, raising the quality and the focus of training, Ms Gho Sze Kee asked about the curation of SkillsFuture courses. She is right that not everything in the SkillsFuture catalogue has been directed towards our workforce development goals.”
“SSG has achieved that aim. Through SSG's nexus with MOE, the IHLs have become the key pillars of CET delivery today. Meanwhile, WSG expanded public employment services and introduced new programmes to address mismatches. Both agencies have substantially achieved the objectives of the restructuring. Earlier on, when I gave the speech, I elaborated extensively on the achievements of SSG and WSG. As for why the merger is the right decision today, let me quote John Maynard Keynes, which is the father of macroeconomics, "When the facts change, I change my mind." Members of the House, with the rapid advances in AI, with technology disruptions happening at a rapid pace and mounting geopolitical disruptions, our operating reality has changed significantly – and so must we. The next bound of our workforce strategy requires an end-to-end system that connects skills to jobs more quickly and more accurately than before. It requires a more integrated structure so that we can be more agile and nimble in predicting, in pre-empting and preparing for new opportunities and disruptions. It also requires a greater variety, a greater volume of services to meet the ever more complex and diverse needs of workers and their employers. So, hence, in addition to delivering better services and programmes, SWDA has an expanded mandate to develop the broader career employment and training ecosystem in Singapore, supporting innovative solutions and improving access to quality services. This is what will make SWDA more than the sum of its parts. To address Mr Saktiandi Supaat's question, this is a key function in the SWDA Bill which goes beyond those in the SSG and the WSG Act. At the same time, we must not lose the specialised capabilities that we have built over the past 10 years.”
“Mr Speaker, I thank Members for their support as well as their questions and suggestions on the SWDA Bill. There are many points raised. I will attempt to address all of them holistically. I will group the issues raised thematically and of course, reply to the questions as best as possible. I have decided to group it into eight broad pillars. First, why this merger, why now. Second, raising the quality as well as the forms of training. Three, connecting training to matching them to good jobs. Four, catering to diverse and ever-changing needs. Five, become even more proactive and to provide anticipatory support. Six, what are the outcome measures of success. Seven, the governance of the new merged entity. And of course, eight, last but not least, on transition and continuity. So, why this merger and why now? First, I would like to address some fundamental questions raised over the purpose of this merger. In particular, Mr Gerald Giam characterised the merger as a reversal of the position from 2016. I disagree with this characterisation. It is more important to ask if the restructuring in 2016 was the right call then and whether the merger, moving forward is the right call now and for the future. The answer to both questions is yes. Let me explain. The restructuring in 2016 allowed SSG and WSG to develop specialised capabilities in adult training and employment facilitation respectively. The House then supported the Skills Future Singapore Agency Bill in 2016. Mr Giam's former colleague, Mr Leon Pereira, supported the aim to bring about a far-reaching change in our adult education and training landscape by establishing an agency that is solely focused on adult education in ways that are intimately linked to economic goals. This is in the Hansard.”
“The establishment of the Workforce Development Agency in 2003, its subsequent restructuring into SSG and WSG in 2016, and now the creation of SWDA reflect the same underlying commitment: to invest in our people and to ensure that our institutions remain best positioned to do so. The Bill presented today sets out the legislative framework to establish the SWDA. If the Bill is passed, SWDA will be established in the third quarter of 2026 as a cornerstone in answering our workforce challenges in the decade ahead. It will support every Singaporean across a career that may be long, multi-staged, varied and non-linear. It will help employers navigate transformation and meet their workforce needs with greater confidence. It will bring coherence and quality to the full ecosystem of career and employment services and training that our workers and businesses can depend on. At its heart, the Bill affirms a conviction that this House has long held – that every Singaporean, at every stage of his or her working life, deserves support to grow, to adapt and to contribute to the nation's continued success. With this, Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek to move. [(proc text) Question proposed. (proc text)]”
“SWDA's functions will cover the existing functions of SSG and WSG, and extend them to include promoting the development of career and employment services and training in Singapore. Parts 3 to 6 set out SWDA's governance structures and requirements, which are aligned with the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018. They cover the membership, the appointment and decision-making procedures of the SWDA Board, as well as personnel and financial matters. Parts 7 and 8 set out the enforcement powers necessary for the administration of the Bill and its general provisions, including the power to make regulations and to issue codes of practice or guidelines for providers of career and employment services and training. Part 9 provides for the transfer of undertakings and employees from WSG and SSG to SWDA. Employees of WSG and SSG will be transferred to SWDA on terms that are no less favourable than their present ones. We have been closely engaging and supporting all officers, to ensure that both their well-being and career aspirations are well-cared for amidst this transition. The refreshed mission of SWDA will provide new growth opportunities and career pathways for staff. We will also provide opportunities for officers to equip themselves for new job roles, so that no one will inadvertently fall through the cracks. Parts 10 and 11 repeal the SSG Act and the WSG Act and make consequential and related amendments to other Acts. The key amendments are to the Private Education Act and Skills Development Levy Act, which will be administered by SWDA. Mr Deputy Speaker, Singapore has consistently demonstrated a willingness to adapt its institutions to meet the demands of each new era.”
“In an era where AI is rapidly transforming job requirements at a pace that no single institution can fully anticipate, lifelong learning and career health must become the norm and it must become a practical reality. It must be something that Singaporeans can and should invest in and take ownership of throughout their entire working life and is not a resource that you can turn to only when the circumstances compel you to do so. Employers too should continuously invest in your employees' career health so that your employees are well-equipped to contribute to the success of your business. The aspiration is to build a Singapore workforce that meets change with confidence, one that is oriented not merely towards managing disruption, but towards seizing the opportunities that come with it. So, not one that is responsive and reactive but one that is preemptive and proactive. SWDA will work with our tripartite partners to catalyse this shift, building on the SkillsFuture movement and the Career Health SG initiative under it. This entails talking about lifelong learning and career health regularly, including at the workplace, internalising it and promoting good career health habits. This requires training and career guidance to be very accessible to the broad middle. Our assurance to every worker and every employer is this: work with us, and we will walk with you. The Government and our tripartite partners will be with you, every step of the way. Mr Deputy Speaker, the priorities I shared set out the mission of SWDA. To give effect to them, we have tabled the SWDA Bill. I will now outline its key components. Part 1 of the Bill introduces the terms used in the Bill. Part 2 establishes SWDA as a Statutory Board and describes the functions and powers of SWDA.”
“This includes recruitment agencies, staffing agencies, career coaching and career guidance providers, human resources (HR) consultancy, technology firms, online job portals and the like. SWDA will work with industry to raise the quality standards, improve accessibility and develop new solutions by spurring both innovation and collaboration. Our goal ultimately is a vibrant private sector, complemented with public employment services and programmes that will be a catalyst and enabler for broad-based workforce transformation and adaptation, amidst the rapid changes in our labour market. This work has already started. Last year, we launched the Alliance for Action on Advancing Career and Employment Services (AfA-ACES) comprising representatives from this ecosystem. Nine pilots are already underway, testing innovative models targeting under-served groups, including fresh graduates, families with complex needs and those returning to the labour force after a period of absence. There are also pilots to work with employers to design more flexible work models and adopt skills-based practices. These pilots may give rise to new programmes and services. More importantly, through these pilots, we are discovering together the strengths of our ecosystem today and the opportunities to take it to the next level tomorrow. Later this year, the AfA-ACES will release its recommendations, which will chart plans to transform the ecosystem to serve individuals and employers more effectively. Mr Deputy Speaker, beyond the structures and services that SWDA will put in place, our deeper ambition is to shift the culture and the mindsets around careers and learning. This is something that I will appeal to everyone because it requires a whole-of-society approach.”
“In the second half of this year, employers will be able to invest in workforce development with greater ease through the redesigned SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit. Overall, the aim is to help businesses plan more effectively, hire more confidently and adapt their workforce more quickly to evolving needs. This will build on ongoing work. In the Financial Services sector, WSG, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Institute of Banking and Finance launched a Jobs Transformation Map (JTM) on Generative AI for Financial Services, partnering 11 financial institutions to unpack what AI adoption means for specific job roles and showcase the opportunities for employees that job redesign and reskilling can potentially bring. The JTM showed how finance and insurance companies can reshape roles in customer service, relationship management and risk management, improving productivity and enabling employees to move up the value chain. It also highlighted new job opportunities in areas such as AI governance. SWDA will bring this approach to support transformation in other sectors, including adoption of AI and managing its impact on jobs. In sum, whether you are dealing with urgent manpower issues for the here and now, or growing your team to expand operations, or even restructuring your workforce to support a pivot in your business, SWDA will work with you, will partner you to transform your business and your workforce. Third, SWDA will strengthen the ecosystem of service providers of career and employment services and training. SSG has already built up a strong training sector over the past decade. SWDA will bolster other parts of this ecosystem that serve workers and employers on their career as well as their workforce needs.”
“Second, the other part of our equation, which is a big one – and that is for employers, SWDA can provide support for their recruitment efforts. For those employers' business looking to fill job vacancies, SWDA can help to accelerate hiring of suitable candidates from its pool of jobseekers and trainees, leveraging the Careers and Skills Passport as a common verified information source on the work experience and the skillsets of candidates. SWDA will also be a stronger partner to employers in workforce development. By unifying skills intelligence with labour market data, it will give businesses sharper, more actionable insights and modalities to support skills-first workforce planning, hiring and internal mobility. It will support the delivery of training that is more relevant to the needs of employers. SWDA's suite of programmes can help employers reskill employees to transfer to new job roles, hence, expanding the pool of available candidates beyond external hires. Beyond recruitment and training, SWDA will support employers through the challenges of deeper workforce transformation. As AI continues to reshape job roles and business models, SWDA will provide employers with integrated support across workforce restructuring, job redesign and capability development. Through the Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package, SWDA will bring together workforce transformation schemes from SSG and WSG in an integrated enterprise digital portal to support holistic workforce transformation. The recently implemented SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant (Job Redesign+), is a key resource that employers can tap on to redesign job roles, build internal capabilities and adopt workforce tech solutions for workforce transformation.”
“In partnership with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech), we have rolled out an AI advisor called Career Kaki that serves as a personal digital concierge for careers and skills, available at any time of the day to help those who are unsure of their next steps. SWDA will continue to expand and improve on these service offerings. For senior workers who have much to contribute with your networks and your experience, and if you are keen to do so, SWDA is part of the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment that is developing an integrated approach to support longer careers. Working with progressive companies and human resource professionals, SWDA will develop and will scale solutions for longer, multi-stage careers and promote age-inclusive jobs and workplaces. Members of the House, preparing our workforce for AI is a key priority. At Budget 2026, the Prime Minister announced the latest addition to SWDA's offering – free access to premium AI tools for those who take up selected training courses. This is one of the priorities that SWDA will deliver in the coming months, as part of a holistic suite of efforts to help workers future-proof their skills and strengthen career health in an AI-enabled economy. SWDA will offer individuals a more seamless journey through an integrated touchpoint. Instead of navigating programmes offered by two agencies, individuals will now have a single interface to the full suite of career guidance, skills training and job matching support offered by SWDA. It will offer an enhanced digital experience, with AI-powered personalised career guidance, recommendations of in-demand training courses, and exploratory tools for employment opportunities based on one's portfolio of skills.”
“And SWDA will do all of these by bringing the capabilities of SSG and WSG together, integrating them to deliver timely and trusted career and skills insights with smarter training and career services, and do that even more than before. SWDA will build a more comprehensive offering of tools, services and programmes to journey with individuals through different life stages. For fresh graduates navigating your first steps in the job market, SWDA will expand opportunities for you to gain real work experience and secure your footing. We will partner companies to provide attachment and traineeship programmes that will give you concrete work experience and exposure, which will then create pathways for you to enter growth sectors with strong manpower demand. We will develop new or expand existing programmes, like the BioPharma Talent Builder programme, which equips you to take on jobs in leading biomedical firms. For those still uncertain about your career trajectory after graduation, SWDA will offer career guidance to help you identify potential career pathways in line with your aspirations, your goals and your values. For mid-career workers, whether facing mid-career stagnations, feeling apprehensive about being displaced, encountering retrenchments, or returning to work after a caregiving break or simply planning ahead, the hardest part is often not knowing where to start and when to take the first step. SWDA will enhance career guidance, will enhance job matching and reskilling support to provide more transition pathways. This includes expanding partnerships with private career service providers and employer networks to deliver more resources for you to navigate the labour market, help you make personalised career plans and connect to new prospects.”
“To stay ahead of change, we must therefore be able to continuously adapt with the times as well as with new realities. That is why we are bringing SSG and WSG together, combining the strengths that both agencies have built up over the past decade into a single upgraded engine for skills and workforce development, ready to support Singaporeans and employers to navigate an age of unprecedented change. We will call the new agency the "Skills and Workforce Development Agency" (SWDA). The name reflects the agency's mission to develop and to advance Singapore's human potential. SWDA will focus on better serving individuals and employers and better partnering the broader ecosystem of providers of career and employment services as well as training. Let me elaborate on each in turn. First, individuals. In the world we live in today, many of us are worried about whether our job will still exist in time to come; whether we can find another job with the same pay and seniority if we lose our jobs; whether our skills built up over an entire career may become obsolete faster than we can keep up. These are legitimate and valid concerns. But our collective response, how do we respond to it, must be one of proactive action, not passive anxiety. SWDA will enable Singaporeans to take purposeful action to stay adaptable, to stay resilient in a fast-changing and uncertain economy. It will support you to build up your career health consistently, strengthening immunity to disruptions and instilling agility to seize new opportunities. It will help you to make better training and career decisions in support of your longer-term career goals. It will help you to bounce back after facing career setbacks.”
“WSG has also expanded the range of support, with the introduction of the Polaris programme to support individuals in long-term career planning in an increasingly fast-changing labour market. The 2016 restructuring substantially delivered what it set out to do. But over the last 10 years, the world around us has shifted, and the next 10 years will certainly not in any way resemble the last 10. First, technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace. ChatGPT did not exist five years ago. The capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) that we see today would have been science fiction in 2016. But the technological wave is now here, it is upon us and it is picking up speed and momentum. Second, geopolitical shocks are reshaping the global economy in ways that were difficult to imagine a decade ago. Since 2016, we have lived through a global pandemic that shuttered economies overnight. Wars in Europe and now in the Middle East have upended energy markets and a rupture in US-China relations is redrawing the map of global trade and investment. The more predictable world that our 2016 framework rested on is now gone. Third, demographic change continues relentlessly. In 2015, roughly one in eight Singapore citizens was aged 65 and above. Today, it is more than one in five, crossing the threshold of a super-aged society. By 2030, it will be one in four. While we had seen this demographic change coming, we are now feeling its impact more acutely. This further sharpens the imperative for us to strengthen the career longevity of our workforce. In short, we live in a different world from 10 years ago. What worked in the past decade will need significant transformation, to be more predictive, to be more anticipatory, as well as be more responsive and targeted moving forward.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time." At Budget 2026, the Prime Minister announced that we will merge SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG) into a new Statutory Board jointly overseen by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). A decade ago, we restructured the Workforce Development Agency into two agencies. WSG remained under MOM to focus on strengthening employment facilitation, services and programmes. SSG moved under MOE to enable it to work more closely with our institutes of higher learning (IHLs) to drive the SkillsFuture movement. Since then, both agencies have come a long way in providing individuals and employers with more comprehensive support. SSG has built a vibrant continuing education and training (CET) landscape, ramping up offerings by private training providers and establishing the IHLs as a key pillar in the ecosystem. Through the SkillsFuture Credit, SSG has mainstreamed the culture of lifelong learning in Singapore. The number of individuals participating in SSG-supported training each year has grown from 418,000 in 2016 to more than 600,000 in 2025. This is about one-fifth of the resident workforce. SSG has also introduced the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme, extending significant support for mid-career Singaporeans to pursue a substantive skills reboot. WSG has expanded its reach in supporting individuals and employers through employment facilitation, reskilling and job redesign. The number of individuals assisted by WSG and its partners has tripled from 127,000 in 2017 to 355,000 in 2025. WSG helped many Singaporeans to overcome episodes of economic slowdown, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.”
“So, the possibilities are there. They are wide. They are varied, as long as we are able to encourage, to socialise the idea with our workforce that they are not discouraged, there will be something for everyone. I can go on for the whole list of the different programmes that we have available, but I think it would probably be beyond the scope of this particular Parliamentary Question session. But suffice to say that there are a lot of programmes out there. Even for myself, holding many of the different portfolios and also with the different programmes that we have, when I want to search for something during my Meet-the-People Session, I also rely on ChatGPT to navigate my own Ministry's myriad of programmes that we have. So, I think you can envisage – it is actually a very comprehensive and a wide series of help that we have.”
“I thank the Member for his question. Indeed, our jobs are evolving very quickly and companies are also having to keep up with that very rapid transformation of what is happening in the world economy. There is not a particular, single policy that we can introduce that would be a panacea to cover every single potential mid-career displacement. But what we are now doing that is an even higher step-up from what we have been doing all this while, is that, beyond just working with that potentially displaced worker or that displaced worker, we are also working with the businesses as well. This year at Budget Committee of Supply, if you recall, I introduced a step-up to the Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package with a SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant (Job Redesign+). Through that, we not only fund workers in reskilling, upskilling, career guidance, enhancing Career Health SG, CareersFinder – many of these, I will talk about later on this afternoon – we are also funding companies to continue to press on with Job Redesign to improve their productivity through the Productivity Solutions Grant; through many of the enterprise development grants, which are disbursed by the economic agencies under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which I am also closely working for. So, there are multiple measures. On top of that, across different sectors, across different industries, when we get feedback, we will not hesitate to put up training programmes for those who want to seek a pivot or switch. The Infocomm Media Development Authority has the TechSkills Accelerator programme. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has a finance programme. In the biopharma sector, we have a biopharma talent track programme that allows many of them to switch, and also, programmes in healthcare.”
“The employment rates, if you look amongst young degree holders, and let us look at that age cohort, from 25 to 29 years old, they have actually remained broadly stable – and this has been at around 90% or nine in 10 over the past decade. What this tells us and the article is actually quite precise in talking about fresh graduates. But I think it also demonstrates that some graduates may take longer to secure full-time roles initially. Most are able to find employment over time. So therefore, this points to a longer school-to-work transition, rather than a broad decline in graduate employment. And I take the Member's point with utmost importance, about the ability for our undergraduates to secure internships. What we are now actively doing is working – of course, this is before the SWDA is formed – we are actively working with our IHLs to bring attachments and exposure, with experienced volunteer career advisors, to build the networks for many of these young undergraduates while they are in-flight through our IHLs. We hope to strengthen that programme even more. We hope to work even more closely with the Ministry of Education with regard to career advisory services exposure. We have got quite a good measure of success with the GRaduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) programme and I said that we have extended it this year. We will continue to get these insights to see how we can work, particularly in sectors that are growth sectors that have a long runway, a long career trajectory, for our undergraduates. We are going to emphasise the foremost importance of this in the next few months. I hope that gives you the reassurance.”
“I thank Mr Hoe for his first point, which is an exhortation. Indeed, I think it is precisely why we are all coming together and to see how we can reach out to more caregivers, particularly should they choose the option of coming back to work. I think the Member would appreciate that the needs of caregivers are varied and they are also very, very complex. I do not think there is a one-size-fit-all policy that would go in, flood the system and uplift everyone. I do not think that any policy can do that. If you just disburse in the form of a broad-based support, we may also end up not being able to get the desired outcome for those that need it the most. So, our approach has always been to work with different sectors, depending on the type of industry that the particular caregiver wants to come back into. And I agree with the Member: stepping out does not mean stepping back or stepping down. There will be plans to work according to the sectors, for them to have a refresh and upgrade of the skills, to retool, to reskill, so that they are ready should they choose to come back into the workforce. For youth internship, I indeed take note of the article today written by Ms Lin Suling in The Straits Times, it was a very long opinion editoral. But let me address one part which I think is important. Today, the statistics that were cited in the article pertain to fresh graduate employment outcomes, which indeed have softened from recent peaks. The peak was coming out from COVID-19, and everybody was rushing to fulfil backlog of orders, there was a big rush for graduates, for talent, coming on board. But we should not be just looking at an isolated year-by-year number.”
“We believe that, with the passage of time, we are also using – it is not a buzzword, but we are indeed using artificial intelligence at the different level of data analytics and triangulation, to allow us to work closely with our businesses and with the employers across different sectors, starting with those areas that we are more familiar with, to be able to better tweak and refine our policies to help our locals. I hope that gives you enough reassurance. We are starting here and we welcome ideas from Members of the House to help us to refine, improve and also to have better reach, more precise policies to reach out and uplift all of our fellow Singaporeans.”
“I thank Ms Tan for her very insightful four or five questions. Sorry if I miscounted them. We have just started publishing this data because this particular indicator itself on overqualification, based on what we are doing, with regard to the data, it is actually quite new. We were able to derive these statistics using occupation and education data, which is captured from our annual labour workforce surveys, enabling us to determine whether a worker possesses educational qualifications that are higher than the typical requirements of a job. Because up till now, based on even international published statistics, underemployment data typically use a time-related measure, and today, the time-related measure still remains the only internationally accepted statistical definition of underemployment and as a proxy, overqualification. So, we are starting, we will continue to monitor the trends over a longer time horizon. How do we measure success? We will, first and foremost, of course, focus on more of the macroeconomic data pertaining to our gross domestic product (GDP) growth and also, our median wages. Today, hopefully with your support, with the formation of the new SWDA and the passage of the Bill later on this afternoon, we will focus on initially very targeted groups – the fresh graduates, the mid-career workers, to the elderly workers, and on top of that, also for caregivers returning to work. With the different interventions across the different cohorts, segments and sectors, we would be able to, in time, track this data better and provide regular updates to this House. At the moment, even this publication of this Occasional Paper, we actually work with the International Labour Organization and we also work with the Labour Movement to triangulate the data sets.”
“These include Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs), the Mid-Career Pathways Programme and the SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme. Female caregivers returning to work from a career break can also access career guidance and skills training through WSG's herCareer initiative. To address diverse needs and working arrangement preferences, MOM and tripartite partners promote a range of work and career options. This includes supporting enterprise job redesign for flexible work arrangements (FWAs) through the SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant (Job Redesign+). Based on MOM's surveys, around 70% of firms offered FWAs in 2025, and this is up from 50% about six years earlier, in 2019.”
“If you look at the median income of full-time employed tertiary graduates over the past decade, the median incomes have risen from $5,800 to $7,600 over the 10 years, and this reflects continued wage progression. We remain committed to help all individuals find jobs that can meet their personal needs as well as their career aspirations. This includes helping lower-wage workers, which Ms Tan asked about, find the jobs that can better utilise their skills, as they may be in entry-level jobs that do not do so. Mr Yip Hon Weng, Ms Cassandra Lee and Ms Tan asked about our broader strategies to reduce skills mismatches. At the pre-employment phase, the institutes of higher learning (IHLs) work closely with industry partners to equip students with industry-relevant technical competencies and skills. And beyond initial qualifications, all of our workers are encouraged to, and they must, embrace lifelong learning. The merger of Workforce Singapore (WSG) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) into the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) – later on today, I will be passing a Bill on that – will help our workers to do so by creating a single touchpoint for training, for career guidance and job opportunities. I do hope that Members of the House will support the Bill unanimously. By bringing together the capabilities of both agencies, SWDA and its tripartite partners will be able to provide personalised career and skills insights and guidance to help jobseekers find options that better match their skills and their preferences. Efforts by SWDA and the National Trades Union Congress' (NTUC's) Employment and Employability Institute will also build on existing upskilling and reskilling programmes that support our workers.”
“I would also like to invite Mr Yip, Ms Lee and Mr Hoe to seek clarifications today, and consider withdrawing their questions filed for future Sittings if their questions have been addressed. Mr Speaker, Sir, 19.4% of the resident workforce was overqualified in 2025. This was below the high-income countries' average of 21.6%. The vast majority of cases were voluntary. Of these overqualified, about nine in 10, or about 17.7% of the resident workforce, were voluntarily overqualified. I want to state, voluntarily overqualified. The remaining one in 10 of overqualified individuals were involuntarily overqualified. As Ms Jessica Tan and Mr David Hoe noted, the voluntarily overqualified could include women and caregivers who may choose roles to explore a new career direction or to better fit around their family circumstances, even if they are overqualified for those roles. In contrast, the involuntary overqualification rate was low at 1.7% of the resident workforce and has remained stable over the past decade. To Dr Wan Rizal's question, involuntarily overqualified workers tend to be younger and tertiary-educated. This is consistent with typical early career pathways where workers may initially take on roles that do not fully utilise their qualifications before transitioning into better-matched roles as they gain experience. The sector with the highest number of involuntarily overqualified workers was Transportation and Storage. Members are encouraged to refer to the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM's) Occasional Paper for more details. Dr Wan Rizal and Ms Tan also asked about the impact of overqualification on longer-term career pathways. MOM currently does not track longitudinal outcomes of overqualified individuals. However, broader labour market outcomes remain favourable.”
“Oral Question Nos 3 and 4, and also written questions filed by Ms Jessica Tan and Dr Wan Rizal for today's Sitting; and oral and written questions filed by Mr Yip Hon Weng1, Ms Cassandra Lee and Mr David Hoe2 for subsequent Sittings.”
“Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would like to address the following Parliamentary Questions on overqualification together.”
“Such discussions are still ongoing because of the review of the Employment Act. I hope that gives you the reassurance that this series of discussions, even as we are now debating it, answering this Parliamentary Question in the House, at the backend, these negotiations and discussions are ongoing.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, we do not have the exact data that the Member has requested. But we can go back, assess and check, and trawl through our available data to see whether we have such data. What we have is that for the last three years ending 2024 – that means 2022, 2023 and 2024 – seven in 10 retrenched workers, who have received career coaching from both Workforce Singapore and/or the Employment and Employability Institute's (e2i's) career coaches, were actually placed within six months. The median time to placement averaged around three months. Today, the Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation reaches out to all retrenched locals with available contact details to provide them with employment facilitation support. We will continue with our efforts to support all retrenched locals. To the Member's second point, we recognise that if we require all companies to notify the Government in advance, in some cases, that requirement could inadvertently affect our workers adversely; not to the same desired impact that we want to to help our workers with. From many accounts, many discussions that we have had with employers, during retrenchments, which is often a painful process, many companies do try to preserve as many jobs as possible through backend negotiations. So, we are conscious and we are mindful of that potential impact if we want to mandate advance notification. Because this may – and I want to emphasise that this may – push companies to finalise the retrenchments faster and therefore, discourage such backend negotiations. Our tripartite partners are indeed mindful of such concerns and they will continue to take a very careful and balanced approach in the discussions.”
“I thank the Member for his supplementary question. Currently, the penalty for non-compliance is an administrative penalty of $1,000 for the first contravention and $2,000 for subsequent contraventions. The Member would be happy to note that the majority – and I want to emphasise, the majority – of employers comply with the MRN requirement. In 2025, 80% of the MRNs were submitted within the five-working-day deadline. This is an improvement from the 70% in 2024. Late submissions were often due to administrative oversight. Companies who submit MRNs late are issued with caution letters. Most of these companies have been compliant thereafter. For the recalcitrant employers, we will impose administrative penalties. Currently, the MRN compliance rate has been high. We do not see a need to raise the penalties at this point in time. I want to emphasise, at this point in time. Nevertheless, we will review our enforcement approach and our penalties regularly. And we will work closely with our tripartite partners, and we will assess if there is a need to review and to raise the penalties.”
“At present, firms with 10 or more employees are required to submit a mandatory retrenchment notification (MRN) to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) within five working days of notifying employees of their retrenchment. Not all jurisdictions require employers to notify their governments when conducting retrenchments. And among those countries that do, practices vary. Some countries, like Singapore, adopt a regime where notification to the Government is made within a specified period after the employees are informed. In many other countries, employers must notify the Government a fixed number of days before the employee's last working day. So, the starting point is different. Nevertheless, we have been able to achieve comparable outcomes. That is because employers here notify the Government shortly after informing their employees, and employees are typically informed well in advance of their last working day. In 2025, 77% of MRNs were submitted at least seven days ahead of the employee's last working day and 73% of MRNs were submitted at least two weeks ahead. As part of an ongoing review of the Employment Act, tripartite partners are studying how to encourage earlier notification by employers – both to affected employees and to the Government. In particular, we would like to see notification to the Government happening before or by the employee's last working day as far as possible. Because this will enable timely employment facilitation support and outplacement services for the affected employees. We will provide an update on the tripartite discussions in due course.”
“This includes working with NGOs, such as the Alliance of Domestic Employees Outreach to train MDW "care sisters" to serve as volunteer peer support and CDE and Brahm Centre to amplify assistance channels. MOM will continue to work with our NGO partners and mental health experts to strengthen the mental health ecosystem for our migrant workforce.”
“The Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and National University of Singapore's (NUS') Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health conducted a study in 2024 to establish the baseline on the mental well-being of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) and migrant workers (MWs) to better inform our interventions and policies. Based on survey responses, the study reflected elevated rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms among MDWs compared to MWs. However, it was important to note that these findings were based solely on participants' responses and do not constitute actual clinical diagnoses of depression or anxiety, which would require professional assessment. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) takes a multi-pronged approach to pre-emptively identify and address mental health and well-being concerns. These include the Settling-In Programme for all first-time MDWs that provides information on stress management and avenues to seek help. The Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) conducts two interviews with all first-time MDWs in the first year of their employment. Additionally, employment agencies are required to carry out welfare checks within three months of the MDW's placement. The mandatory six-monthly medical examination is yet another safeguard to enable early detection of distress. Beyond these, MOM operates a dedicated MDW helpline to support MDWs in distress and an MDW WhatsApp channel that contains information on mental health and how to seek help. The 2024 IMH-NUS study found that the vast majority of MDWs (91.4%) would seek help from their family, friends or from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Given this, MOM will strengthen support to our NGO partners to enable early detection and timely intervention.”
“MOM will continue to monitor the reporting trends and tighten our enforcement efforts against underreporting, if required.”
“Under the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act and Work Injury Compensation (WIC) Act, employers are required to report workplace injuries to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Healthcare records cannot be used to assess the extent of underreporting as doctors are not required to separately maintain records of workplace injuries. Instead, cases of underreporting are detected through our regular checks and investigations into complaints from whistleblowers. The average number of underreporting breaches has been low at about 30 cases annually over the past five years. As for comparison against insurance records, the iReport system that is used for reporting workplace injuries is the same reporting channel through which all WIC insurance claims are initiated. This streamlined process facilitates employers' timely and comprehensive reporting of workplace injuries. Workers who suspect that a workplace injury has not been reported can submit a report to MOM directly through the iReport system without fear of reprisal. Under the WSH Act, workers are protected against dismissals or threats of dismissal for reporting to MOM. Where MOM's investigations uncover workplace injuries that were not reported or reported late, appropriate enforcement actions would be taken against the parties involved, including fines or prosecution. To allow for a more complete oversight of workplace injuries, the reporting requirements were expanded in 2020 to cover all injuries that result in at least one day of sick leave or light duties. To provide a stronger deterrence, the maximum fines for failing to report an injury were also doubled in 2024 to $10,000 for first-time offenders and $20,000 for repeat offenders.”
“The Ministry of Manpower's initiatives focus on supporting individuals in improving their employability and employment incomes, by investing in their upskilling and training at all stages of their careers, from entry to the work force to retaining them in the workforce for as long as they are able and choose to continue working. We support lower-wage workers, who may face greater cost-of-living pressures, through the Workfare Income Supplement targeted at the bottom 20% of Singaporean workers. The Progressive Wage Model, covering about nine in 10 full-time lower-wage resident workers, also helps to uplift wages by upgrading skills and improving productivity.”
“Under the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment (TWG-SE), the Ministry of Manpower and tripartite partners are studying various work arrangements, including fractional employment, to support senior employment, as both workers and business adapt to changing economic conditions and work preferences. Fractional work arrangements are an emerging area and are still evolving in form and scope. Hence, there is no international statistical definition. At present, aspects of such arrangements are partially captured through existing indicators, such as data on part-time workers and multiple job holders in our labour force survey. This allows us to monitor related trends while the concept continues to develop. As we study the topic further through the TWG-SE, we will explore how to better define and support fractional employment arrangements, including how to better collect data on such workers. Findings from the TWG-SE will be released later this year.”
“Since 2019, the Government has spent close to $1 billion from the Skills Development Fund and other funding sources to support broad-based training programmes with on-the-job training (OJT) components, such as Career Conversion Programmes, SkillsFuture Work-Study Programmes, as well as training and consultancy services provided under the National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning. Data prior to 2019 is unavailable. These efforts have benefited more than 70,000 workers and 20,000 companies. The annual breakdown of funding and number of beneficiaries are provided in Table 1 below. The Government is prepared to continue expanding support for OJT to meet the training needs of enterprises and help workers develop industry-relevant skills.”
“In 2025, Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents and Employment Pass holders accounted for 67.3%, 17.4% and 15.3% of senior management roles1 in MNCs (multinational companies)2 respectively. Senior management roles in MNCs are concentrated in the services sector, particularly in higher-skilled, higher-paying industries, such as financial and insurance services, information and communications, and professional services. Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents form the majority in these roles.”
“Prospective employers of migrant workers (MWs) and migrant domestic workers (MDWs) may have different concerns and priorities when seeking feedback on a worker's past performance. As such, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) does not require employers to submit feedback on their workers directly to MOM. Instead, to support more informed hiring decisions, MOM allows past employers to be a referee for their ex-worker, by providing their contact details for prospective employers to reach out to them. Any feedback that past employers wish to provide is shared between the employers directly. From 2021 to 2025, the number of instances in which past employers of MDWs offered to act as referees for their ex-workers is as shown in the table. The figures account for less than 2% of MDWs whose work permits expire or are cancelled each year. As MOM has no access to feedback shared by past employers of MDWs, we do not verify the feedback or attach them to an MDW's employment record. MWs and MDWs are not notified when their past employer offers to be a referee. This confidentiality allows for employers to share candid feedback, without becoming the subject of speculation as to whether they had shared any negative feedback. MOM has no plans to change the existing referee process.”
“The Government has elaborated on the fuel situation in the Ministerial Statements on 7 April 2026. [Please refer to "Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore", Official Report, 7 April 2026, Vol 96, Issue 27, Ministerial Statements section.] We currently do not have plans to encourage remote work specifically in response to petrol price surges.”
“The Member may refer to the Ministerial Statement given by Deputy Prime Minister Gan at the Sitting on 7 April 2026. [Please refer to "Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore", Official Report, 7 April 2026, Vol 96, Issue 27, Ministerial Statements section.]”
“Singapore takes a serious view of trafficking-in-persons, and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) investigates all cases of potential labour trafficking and exploitation offences. MOM has stepped up on enforcement and is investigating several companies and employment agencies for illegal employment practices involving work permit holders. This includes the illegal deployment of work permit holders in occupations different from those specified in their work permits, as well as making false declarations in work pass applications. MOM also conducts surprise checks at workplaces to engage migrant workers and ensure that they were not coerced or deceived into performing exploitative forms of work. To strengthen protection of migrant workers, MOM partners non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to raise awareness among migrant workers on their employment rights and protections, including through the mandatory Settling-in Programme. NGOs and migrant workers who encounter contraventions of employment laws are encouraged to report them to MOM. Workers with valid claims will receive special passes allowing them to remain in Singapore and seek alternative employment.”
“In 2025, Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) received close to 2,000 job assistance requests from unemployed Singaporeans who had recently graduated from universities. Separately, close to 1,500 recent university graduates assisted by WSG or e2i found jobs in 2025. This includes graduates who had sought assistance in earlier years, as there is typically a time lag between seeking assistance and securing a job. We do not track whether these assisted graduates were from local or overseas universities.”
“The Government pays extra interest on Central Provident Fund (CPF) balances up to a cap to help members boost their retirement savings through compounding interest. Since 2008, 1% extra interest has been paid on the first $60,000 of combined CPF balances. The Government enhanced this in 2016, paying an additional 1% of extra interest on the first $30,000 of CPF balances for all members aged 55 and above. This enables members with lower balances to benefit from a higher effective interest rate on their savings. The CPF retirement sums, such as the Basic or Full Retirement Sums (BRS or FRS), are set independently based on the amount of savings needed to provide an adequate level of retirement payouts. It is therefore not accurate to link the balance cap to the growth in FRS quanta. As such, there is no interest forgone by CPF members. The retirement sums guide members on how much to set aside based on their retirement needs. These are complemented by a comprehensive suite of measures implemented by the Government to help Singaporeans build their retirement savings. Over the years, we have introduced the Majulah Package and enhanced the Silver Support Scheme, Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, and Workfare Income Supplement. In Budget 2026, we have also announced a CPF Top-Up for older Singaporeans who have not met the BRS.”
“We are unable to and do not track whether, how long and how often individuals take employment breaks for caregiving as these are personal family arrangements. Hence, we are unable to quantify the specific impact of caregiving duties on lifetime income and retirement adequacy.”
“The findings from the 2025 PW injury data provide a basis for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and our partners to examine the risk factors of platform work and study how to further strengthen safeguards to protect PWs from injuries at work. To this end, MOM has convened a PW Safety Workgroup comprising relevant government agencies, POs, NTUC and PWAs, which had its first meeting in March 2026. An area of focus is the higher incidence of injury experienced by PWs using two-wheeled vehicles such as motorbikes and power-assisted bicycles, safe usage of such vehicles, and how these can be collectively addressed by all stakeholders. The workgroup will share its findings and recommendations when ready.”