SINGAPORE - Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah will speak on the need for upskilling and upgrading to keep Singapore’s workforce relevant and competitive at a roundtable organised by The Straits Times and The Business Times on March 7.
The ST-BT Budget 2024 Roundtable, sponsored by UOB, takes place amid the ongoing Committee of Supply debates in Parliament, and follows the Budget 2024 statement delivered by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong on Feb 16.
The panel features Ms Rajah, UOB senior economist Alvin Liew, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises Ang Yuit, and deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Desmond Tan.
Moderated by ST associate editor Vikram Khanna, 2024’s roundtable will focus on how Budget 2024’s initiatives will help to upskill Singapore’s mid-career workers – a need that appears more urgent than ever before.
Under the SkillsFuture Level-Up programme unveiled during the Budget, a $4,000 SkillsFuture credit top-up will be given to Singaporeans aged 40 and above in May. The credit, which will not expire, can be used for about 7,000 part- and full-time courses designed to generate better employability outcomes.
In addition, Singaporeans aged 40 and above who enrol in a full-time course will receive a monthly training allowance of up to half their last-drawn pay, capped at $3,000. This will help them to partially defray the loss of income from taking time off work.
Some of the issues the roundtable panel could cover are:
- How technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, have made it necessary for workers to reskill;
- The low-take up rate of SkillsFuture credits in 2023 among those aged 25 and above;
- How companies can play a role in ensuring that re-skilling – through SkillsFuture – will be relevant for their workers; and
- The issue of ageism bias among employers, a topic brought up during the recently concluded Budget debate.
