7 - UNPACKING THE LOGIC OF LOW SKILLS IN THE SINGAPORE PRIVATE SECURITY SERVICES INDUSTRY Soon-Joo Gog Singapore Workforce Development Agency Singapore INTRODUCTION As this book goes into print, the Singapore government has raised the skills strategies atop its national agenda under the ambit of SkillsFuture. SkillsFuture has four key trusts: (1) to help individuals in making well-informed choices in training and career, (2) to develop an integrated high quality system of education and training that respond to constantly evolving needs, (3) to promote employers recognition and career development based on skills and mastery and (4) to foster a culture that supports and celebrates lifelong learning (SkillsFuture, 2015). While the policy intention is noble and high–sounding, it is doubtful that security firms and their security employees would benefit from the SkillsFuture agenda. The attitudinal, institutional and circumstantial factors, if left unresolved, will continue to trap the security sector in a low-skills equilibrium, leaving firms and employees in the sector behind. The private security industry is well known for its low-skills, low-wages, and low productivity. It is an industry that is characterised by its network organisation type of work arrangement where the service buyers outsource the work to firms on fixed tenure contractual basis, and the service providers deploy workers to buyers’ sites (see inter alia, Kirov & Ramioul, 2014; Mehaut, Berg, Grimshaw, Jaehring, van de Meer, & Eskildsen, 2010). As highlighted by Rubery, Grimshaw, and Marchington (2010), the chain of command, the quality of job, and the employment security are challenging due to the precarious employment arrangement arising from the outsourcing
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