A very good morning to all of you. It's great to be amongst friends and colleagues, union leaders, our brothers and sisters from NTUC FairPrice, including CEO Vipul, and our colleagues from Government, including SkillsFuture (SSG) CEO Kok Yam.
Great to be amongst friends and great to be able to come here to witness this important milestone. Congratulations on the good work and the tripartite collaboration.
Today’s MOU will mark another meaningful milestone in our tripartite journey to build resilient businesses amidst all the changes in our economy and this sector.
Not only businesses are transforming, but our workforce is getting future-ready, even as we speak. All the collective work that we do together really makes a difference and moves the needle.
Today, we have about 3,700 CTCs, impacting more than 10,000 workers to date. With real tangible outcomes, workers can see when they upskill, it can lead to better work prospects, in terms of career development and immediate possibilities of wage growth, at an average of about 5% per annum over annual wage increases.
Companies – amongst all the many thousands or so that may have participated in the CTC Grant – have benefitted from productivity gains and training assistance provided by our Government partners.
This MOU today will be the 4th Tripartite Queen Bee partnership — between NTUC, SSG and FairPrice Group. FairPrice will be the fourth Queen Bee coming into this ecosystem, but it will be the first in in the wholesale trade and retail sector to champion the Queen Bee initiative.
We are not just transforming one company at a time. Through this Queen Bee process, we are hoping to innovate in conjunction with FairPrice as a Queen Bee, share good practices with 100 SMEs, and move these companies in terms of technologies, and uplift and enable workers. I hope the wholesale trade and retail sector will be energised by our MOU today and that more will follow FairPrice Group’s lead.
This partnership is especially meaningful because FairPrice Group, an NTUC enterprise, is stepping forward as the first tripartite catalyst and multiplier for the wholesale trade and retail sector. The targeted impact, Mr Vipul has said, is 100 SMEs and 1,000 workers. I hope it will be far-reaching once we get the different initiatives on the road.
FairPrice and its union partner, FDAWU have been walking the talk for years — evolving and innovating to stay ahead:
I hope that this is the same spirit of innovation and partnership that will drive FairPrice to step up as a Queen Bee — to mentor, guide, and uplift its suppliers and ecosystem partners to grow together.
Message To Workers: Upskilling, Together
As our economy transforms, we know that jobs are changing. Each time I get into the car, drive long distances to Benoi, you would hear about the job losses, job changes, but also good possibilities of jobs. So as NTUC comes alongside the workers, let us reduce the anxiety when there are job uncertainties. When there are job opportunities, let us help our workers pivot into these new possibilities, these new sunrise industries and jobs.
But our workers’ anxieties can be overwhelming and difficult. That is why for our workers, NTUC will come alongside in this journey.
Through the Company Training Committees (CTCs) and now the Queen Bee partnership, we hope that we can help every worker learn new skills, move into higher-value jobs, earn better wages, and build clearer career paths.
But this responsibility is not just with our workers. With the Queen Bee Tripartite Partnership that FairPrice is championing, it will ease the impact and the journey, strengthen both companies and workers together, and share the gains of this transformation. As I always say, let’s get there with the Government’s support and the generous CTC Grant for upskilling workers.
Message to SME suppliers: Small But Stronger Together
For the SME partners here, so what? Well, what it means with the Queen Bee partnership is that you do not have to face new technologies alone. With the scale of FairPrice Group, we hope to be able to come alongside as we face challenges like manpower shortages.
Sometimes we know what AI is but have no idea how to incorporate it into our businesses. Well, we hope to be able to share some of these with SMEs through FairPrice, through the capabilities of NTUC in our AI Transformation blueprint, along with SSG’s knowledge in the retraining and upskilling sector as well.
I know as I talk to the SME employers, these challenges weigh our employers down. So as NTUC innovates, we don’t just come alongside workers anymore, we want to partner SMEs as well to go through this journey with.
Let’s try and innovate and see whether we can go beyond what we have done in the last five years with Company Training Committees, and scale it into Cluster Training Committees with key Queen Bees driving the industry forward.
By joining this ecosystem, SMEs can:
The only thing I ask of the SME employers: When you succeed in your businesses, please take care of our workers in your SME. That is the foundation of trust that we have been building with many companies and now that we are venturing into the SME space, we want to start on the right foot to enable our workers.
More importantly, for the next 50 years, 60 years, we build the foundation of trust and tripartism anchored by many businesses.
Moving Forward – Building the Future Together
So moving forward, while this is a single MOU today between NTUC, SSG, and FPG. Let’s look beyond what we are signing today and cast our vision forward to dream, dare and do bigger things and in time to come, deliver the goods for businesses and our workers. I hope all of you will have a fruitful partnership and build upon this foundation of trust together.
Congratulations on the good work. I hope that your future will be bright even as you chase the rainbow and make better businesses.
Thank you.
