Applicants for new work pass to attract top talent will be carefully vetted: Manpower Minister

“MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES”

Dr Tan also clarified there will be no dole for the issue of such passes, in reply to questions simply by Mr Mohd Fahmi, Mr Singh and Ms He.

“We are not setting a quota, and the reason is this – if we accept there is never enough of top talent to look around the world, then it will not make sense to restrict the amount of talent we bring in, ” said Dr Tan.  

“If all of us impose a contingent, we are essentially placing a hard limit about how strongly we can contend at the high-end from the global economy. This ultimately hurts Singaporeans, who will have fewer opportunities. ”

To give a sense of quantities, Dr Tan said that 5 per cent of Singapore EP cases would be around 8, 000 people.

“But the focus is not on the numbers – because we are focusing on quality rather than quantity, ” he mentioned.

Given the particular “highly selective” nature of the scheme, there is absolutely no risk of a “deluge” of people coming in order to Singapore through the Abroad Networks & Knowledge Pass, he added.

Answering MPs’ questions on how the particular pass would advantage Singaporeans and what the particular expected impact on local employment is, Dr Tan said that the connection between talent, development and economic development is more than a “simple, linear one”.  

“The efforts of talented individuals go beyond a set of key performance indicators. Limiting and reducing this to that risks constraining us to a yardstick of measurements and missing the woodland for the trees. ”

Giving some examples, he said that a few pass holders might be employees, making it possible to bring a new business unit to Singapore, or grow a new profession.

Others may set up companies of their own, and others may be right here to teach, advise or consult for nearby enterprises, enabling them to share their expertise with Singaporean company owners and professionals, he said.

“We are building a wealthy network of marketplaces, people and suggestions, that over time, is found in the dynamism of our economy, ” he or she said.  

“And if, at the macro level, local job creation remains strong, unemployment reduced, real income growth sustained, and if, amongst our people, almost always there is a sense of hope along with opportunities – however think we would possess succeeded. ”

He said that nearby small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit too simply by directly hiring the particular Overseas Network & Expertise Pass holders, tapping on complete holders’ expertise by means of consulting services, or inviting them to sign up for their boards.

“Just as importantly, a vibrant, growing economic climate will create a lot more business opportunities or build a new ecosystem for the SMEs who may be partners, contractors, providers or service providers, ” Dr Tan stated.

“This may be in up-and-coming industries such as the green economic climate or FinTech, where there will be new mozzarella cheese for our SMEs. ”

HELPING LOCAL PEOPLE COMPETE 

Dr Tan said that Singapore’s policies to bring in global talent can also be meant to accelerate the development of the local talent pool.

“We have designed our foreign workforce policies to incentivise companies to develop a strong local labor force – COMPASS, for example, takes into account a firm’s local PMET (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) share when evaluating its EP applications, ” he said.

“We will complement this particular with investments in the local workers, to help them succeed. ”

COMPASS or the Complementarity Assessment Framework moves in Sept 2023.

In addition to looking at a work merge applicant’s qualifications, it should take into account other factors just like the diversity of nationalities among a firm’s PMETs and its assistance for local a career. It will not apply to often the Overseas Networks & Expertise Pass and job roles utilizing salary levels for or above S$22, 500.

Dr Tan said that the Industry Transformation Maps mapped out growth plans designed for 23 sectors along the economy, and for each and every sector, MOM accepted in-demand jobs plus developed jobs and even skills strategies to build up the local talent canal for these jobs.

There are also Jobs Change for better Maps to provide job-level insights on the impression of technology relating to the industry and labor force, which companies will use to redesign and also enhance job assignments, and equip the workers with the abilities needed for these tasks.

“Working meticulously with industry as well as unions, the Government has got spared no endeavor to help employers and workers to upskill and reskill for jobs of the future.  

“A a comprehensive portfolio of programmes are offered by Workforce Singapore, SkillsFuture Singapore and the various segment agencies to support exercise, ” he stated.

There are also several schemes to help grow local business community heads, such as the Asian Economical Leaders Scheme that co-funds and sends promising Singaporeans inside the financial sector about leadership programmes.

Other similar techniques include a new Singapore Global Executive Programme, the SkillsFuture Command Development Initiative, in addition to Enterprise Singapore’s International Ready Talent Plan, said the ressortchef (umgangssprachlich).

On capabilities transfer to build up native expertise, Dr Tanners said that companies now have programmes to get more experienced employees, foreign or even local, to transport skills to less experienced employees.  

The companies can tap on numerous government programmes, for example SkillsFuture, the Empire Development Grant as well as the Capability Transfer System.

SKILLS MOVE

Replying to a question from Assoc Prof Jamus Lim (WP-Sengkang) on perhaps the Government can “codify” training and knowledge transfer requirements right into law, Dr Tan cautioned against “too deterministic an approach”.

“Skills transport is but even though it that foreign time and energy can contribute to Singapore and create opportunities just for Singaporeans, ” says Dr Tan.

“In some areas, foreign manpower aids you to make up the gap between demand and supply – some of these gaps can persist due to native and global fads, for instance, the global loss of digital talent. ”

Furthermore, skills transfer is not a “simple, linear process”.

“It is going to be impossible to come up with there are rule on how long it should take meant for skills to be copied from one person to a different one, or how much knowledge to transfer, for instance. ”

Singapore’s approach is not to set a mandatory requirement for expertise transfer, but to apply “the right ecosystem” of policies to motivate businesses to decide complementary foreign workers, while building up an important “strong Singaporean Core”, Dr Tan said.

“This offers keeping a tight labour market through typical updates to our job pass criteria, together with significant investments to support our workforce upskill and reskill. ”