4.4 Continuous Education and Training

also the relationship among these different factors that is valuable in understanding the interaction that engenders different types of behaviour and effects. An enhanced understanding of the different permutations in non-permanent work will assist industry and policy-makers to calibrate and prioritise intervention strategies accordingly, and understand which lever of change will produce which and/or the most effective outcomes. For instance, in technical theatre, entry-level casual jobs may be narrowly-defined and may benefit from job redesign, but efforts are more well-placed if they focus on fast-tracking workers’ progression into more specialised job roles that are in high demand in the industry but which workers find difficult to access on their own. For the low-wage occupations surveyed here, both workers’ and employers benefit more by minimising non-permanent arrangements through redesigning permanent jobs to make them more attractive in terms of higher pay and less rigid working conditions.

4.4 Continuous Education and Training

Members at the reference group session discussed extensively the need to continuously encourage the workers to undergo CET to enhance their employability. At the same time, those working on the ground could relate to the “sense of betrayal” highlighted in this study when undertaking CET does not lead these workers to their desired jobs.

At the core, the workers are not averse to seeking learning opportunities and training. While they may take instrumental attitude to CET, seeing it as a route to better jobs and pay, such an attitude is not unique to this segment of workers. Their openness to CET should be harnessed, and CET solutions should be made relevant to their needs.

Under the Singapore Government’s latest budget for 2015, new initiatives have been rolled out under the broad banner of SkillsFuture to give greater empowerment to workers to take charge of their own training and upgrading. This includes the SkillsFuture Credit and the Individual Learning Portfolio. Our prognosis is that such empowerment is likely to have limited real impact on the casual worker in these lowwage occupations. An example is the interviewee discussed in the preceding chapter, who took on courses for call centre-related jobs under the HOPE programme but has not had the chance to enter the industry. Unless the CET