Mr Gan Thiam Poh: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry what have been done and put in place so far to ensure that Singaporean university graduates will get quality and fulfilling jobs upon graduation in view of the Government increasing the percentage of graduates for each cohort from 25% to 40%.

1. The Government adopts a two-pronged approach in its efforts to help our university graduates get good jobs.  First, we keep our economy competitive and seek to capitalise on new opportunities in and beyond our region.  We do this by growing knowledge-intensive industries such as advanced manufacturing and biologics that will provide good jobs, and by pursuing sustained, productivity-driven growth in key sectors of our economy such as manufacturing, financial and business services.  This allows our economy to grow amidst a challenging global environment, and to create higher skilled jobs for Singaporeans.

 

2. One example of this strategy is in Manufacturing.  It remains a vital part of our economy, providing more than half a million jobs while contributing about a fifth of GDP.  To build up our industry capabilities in advanced manufacturing, we are helping businesses adopt and leverage on new technologies in areas such as Additive Manufacturing and Robotics.  This will transform the way our companies operate to create new growth and business opportunities, as well as diverse jobs that provide good career development potential for Singaporean graduates.  These jobs will require deep skills and multi-disciplinary knowledge, and the ability to synthesise the two.  One example is a manufacturing operations design specialist, who needs to be able to design the manufacturing process for new products, rather than just implement an existing procedure.

 

3. The second prong of our approach is to invest heavily in equipping Singaporeans with the skills to take up these jobs.  MTI works with MOE and MOM to identify the current and future skillsets required and design education and training programmes to equip Singaporeans with these skills.  For example, our Institutes of Higher Learning have industry engagement platforms to ensure that their curricula and learning outcomes are mapped closely to the skills and capabilities required by industry.  The SkillsFuture Council will also work with industry partners to develop Sectoral Manpower Strategies to identify future skills, and set out strategies for developing those skills in our workforce.

 

4. The expansion of our publicly-funded university cohort participation rate to 40 per cent by 2020 has been designed to place an emphasis on applied degree pathways to create a diverse pool of graduate talent to meet the changing demands of the economy.  We will continue to keep our economy competitive by pushing on with restructuring and our efforts to create good jobs.  We will also continue to invest in education and training, including creating pathways for Singaporeans to upgrade their skills.  However, it is equally important for Singaporeans to take ownership of their career development, and ensure that they develop the right skills and experience to make full use of these opportunities that are emerging.