EMPLOYEE TRAINING WORKFORCE SKILLS QUALIFICATION WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
Singapore - With the launch of a new Workforce Skills Qualification scheme, about 7,000 professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in the wafer fabrication industry can be expected to be sent for in-house training later this year.
Workforce Development Authority (WDA) announced yesterday the launch of a new Workforce Skills Qualification scheme in the wafer fabrication industry.
Based on a report by Channel News Asia, the semiconductor sector makes up some 15.4% of the country's manufacturing output, employing nearly 40,000 workers. While the global semiconductor industry is expected to improve for the rest of 2009, the industry also looks promising for 2010.
It is also the fastest growing segment in the electronics industry, churning S$37.3 billion in revenue in 2008, said labour chief Lim Swee Say.
However, Lim warned that competition within this industry will become more intense. To counter this, six major players in the industry have already launched a national framework of skills upgrading for their workers to ensure that they remain employable.
The six companies which include ST Microelectronics, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Numonyx , Tech Semiconductor Singapore, Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company and United Microelectroncs. These companies will align their training programmes to meet the new national standards.
Lim said commented, "We want the production system in Singapore to be cheaper, better and faster than similar systems in other countries... Yet at the same time, at the individual level, we hope that every individual engineer, technician, every individual operator in
Singapore can be as good if not better than their counterparts in other locations. "
"So with the same production process and the same number of workers, we hope that the production in Singapore operations can produce higher quantity, better quality and better variety."
While the WDA is planning to extend such programmes into new sectors, ST Microelectronics, United Microelectroncs and ST Microelectronics are currently looking into a new three-party programme that will profit technicians and operators within the three organisations.
The programme is expected to launch next year and will benefit some 3,000 workers in the wafer fabrication industry.
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