SINGAPORE, Sept 13 — With a new work pass to be introduced next year for top foreign talent, how will the Singapore government track whether these high-flyers pass on their skills to Singaporeans to eventually fulfil their roles? Several opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) posed this question to Manpower Minister Tan See Leng in Parliament yesterday regarding the new Overseas Networks and Expertise (One) Pass.
In a ministerial statement on the matter, Dr Tan had stressed that government policies and rules can only do so much to develop Singapore’s economy.
“Locals ourselves should keep upgrading our skills and be willing to go on international stints. We should also help newcomers integrate into our society,” he said.
“All of us must constantly look for the possibilities of what we can create together, when we bring our diverse skills and expertise, to work as one.” The One Pass was announced two weeks ago as a five-year pass targeted at foreigners earning at least S$30,000 a month in a bid to attract top talent to Singapore.
This work pass will have several benefits over the regular Employment Pass (EP), such as a longer duration, the flexibility to work for multiple companies in Singapore and exemption from a new points-based approval system.
The Singapore government has often reiterated that Employment Passes allow companies to bring in foreign professionals to plug skills gaps in high-value activities where there is a lack of competent workers in Singapore, before Singaporeans can be trained to take on these jobs.
After Dr Tan’s speech, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh touched on the need to ensure that the local-foreigner employment divide does not become a permanent fault line in society and asked how the Singapore government intends to track and promote the transfer of skills to Singaporeans by EP holders, including the One Pass.
“Skills transfer to Singaporean workers must be at the centre of our manpower policies to ensure that Singaporeans can avail themselves to good job opportunities,” said the Workers’ Party (WP) leader.
‘Missing the forest for the trees’
In reply, Dr Tan referred to his earlier speech where he described One Pass holders as individuals who can potentially push new frontiers, draw in greater investments and interest to grow the local ecosystem and, most importantly, create a diverse range of opportunities for Singaporeans.
Trying to measure the success of this new work pass and placing key performance indicators on these pass holders would risk “missing the forest for the trees”, he said.
Giving some examples of how this pass would benefit Singaporeans, Dr Tan said that some pass holders may be employees, making it possible to bring a new business unit to Singapore or grow a new line of business.
Others may set up companies of their own, in turn generating employment. Some may also be brought on by companies to teach, advise or consult local enterprises, sharing their expertise with them.
Small — and medium-sized enterprises can also benefit from hiring One Pass holders directly or tap their expertise through consulting services or inviting them to join their boards.
Fundamentally, Dr Tan said that the objective of the new pass is to find new economic areas that Singapore can venture into and grow them to eventually provide significant economic opportunities for local businesses and employees.
Dr Tan added in his reply to Singh that there are many other government programmes that support skills development of workers here, including SkillsFuture, the Enterprise Development Grant and the Capability Transfer Programme.
Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai, from the Progress Singapore Party, later reiterated Singh’s question and asked why the Singapore government cannot mandate mentoring, skills transfer and succession planning under its work pass programmes.
Dr Tan replied: “I think we are now at the stage where we are not only looking at skill sets alone (or) expertise.
“More so than the proxy of the S$30,000 mark, we’re looking at creating a significantly different ecosystem. One that will hopefully ensure our continued prosperity and progress for the next five or 10 decades and beyond.” In his ministerial statement, Dr Tan had also addressed WP MP Jamus Lim’s question on whether the Singapore government would “codify” training and skills transfer requirements into law.
Dr Tan cautioned against taking “too deterministic” an approach.
“At the end of the day, skills transfer is not a simple, linear process. It would be impossible to come up with a single rule on how long it should take for skills to be transferred from one person to another, or how much skills to transfer, for that matter,” he said.
“So, our approach is not to set a mandatory requirement for skills transfer, but rather to put in place the right ecosystem of policies that incentivises businesses to select complementary foreign workers, while building up a strong Singaporean core.” — TODAY
