Mr Speaker, I declare my interest that SSG and WSG are represented by the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees, where I am the General Secretary, and the new agency will be in due course.
Mr Speaker, across Singapore today, as many of my honourable members have mentioned as well, there is much anxiety among workers – in the PME who has just been made redundant, in the fresh graduate sending out applications that go unanswered, in the 58-year-old who wonders if anyone will hire him again, in the caregiver who stepped away for five years, who now doesn't know how to step back in.
These are not statistics. These are people. And they are watching us today. They want to know how will SWDA do better.
I rise to support this Bill because the merger of SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore is not just good policy. It is the right thing to do for every Singaporean worker.
Mr Speaker, for years, we have operated with a logical but limiting division of labour. SSG accredited courses and administered SkillsFuture credits. WSG managed career conversion, hiring incentives, and improved job matching. Two agencies, two mandates, two systems.
But here is the truth: learning and working are not two separate journeys. They are one.
When these two functions live in separate houses, workers and jobseekers fall through the gaps between them. They complete a course and find no pathway to a job. They get placed in a job with no support to grow. We called it an ecosystem. For many workers, it felt like a maze.
The merger closes that gap. It signals that a course without a career pathway is incomplete, and a job placement without skills development is unsustainable.
Mr Speaker, training is not the destination. It is the vehicle.
We have celebrated completion rates. We have counted courses taken, credits used, certificates earned. While those numbers matter, they are not the finish line.
The finish line is this: Did training lead to a better job? A higher wage? A worker who feels more secure, more valued, more able to provide for their family?
Because if a worker sacrifices evenings and weekends to attend training, pushes through self-doubt, and emerges with a certificate that leads nowhere or worse, leads to a job that pays the same, or continues receiving job application rejections as before, then we have failed them. The training system has taken their time, resources and their hope, but returned nothing of real value.
The new agency's mandate must be clear: measure outcomes, not just outputs.
What does a real outcome look like? An increase in real wages. Progression to a higher-value role not a lateral transfer, not a downgrade. A worker with the dignity of a career that moves forward and upward.
Course accreditation must no longer ask only if this course is well-designed. It must ask: Does this course lead to real employment and outcomes? Does it lead to wage and career progression? Is it connected to industries that are hiring and hiring at fair wages?
The merged agency now has access to both SSG's training ecosystem and WSG's employment data. It can see both sides of the equation. That intelligence must be used boldly.
And to employers, I say this directly: the social compact must be both ways. When a worker reskills, their wage and title must reflect that upgrade. Hiring a reskilled worker at the same salary as before is not transformation, it is tokenism.
Better training must mean better jobs. Better jobs must mean better wages. Better wages must mean better lives. Every link in that chain must hold.
Mr Speaker, I would like to make three specific calls.
Publish Outcomes that Matter
First, publish the outcomes that matter.
I urge the new agency to track and publish time-to-placement, wage growth post-training, and job-fit rates. Not buried in annual reports visible, searchable, accountable. These indicators will keep the system honest.
Scale Sector-level Transformation to Reach SMEs
Second, scale sector-level transformation to reach SMEs.
We already have strong models. The SkillsFuture Queen Bee initiative, working alongside NTUC’s Company Training Committees, has delivered real results. At ST Engineering, jobs were redesigned, workers were upgraded, productivity improved. Through the SSG-NTUC-FairPrice Group partnership, 1,000 workers across their SME supplier network are being upskilled, lifting an entire ecosystem, not just one company.
But these remain uneven successes. Many SMEs are not plugged into these ecosystems. This is why the SWDA should leverage the upcoming Tripartite Jobs Council (or TJC in short) as a greater partner, than a consultative forum. It should see the TJC as a key driver of on the ground coordination amidst all this AI disruption, to bring about sector-wide transformation so that good jobs and sustained careers reach whole industries, and not just flagship firms. SWDA should see the advantages of tapping on the strengths of tripartite partners like NTUC and SNEF to reach the employers and workers.
Worker Voice in Governance
Third, worker voice in governance.
The SWDA will make decisions that directly shape the livelihoods and career paths of hundreds of Singaporeans. I ask: will there be worker representation at the Board level not through consultation, but as part of the governance structure itself?
A worker voice is not symbolic. It grounds the agency in reality whether training leads to real jobs, whether transitions are navigable, whether policies reflect what happens in workplaces.
Reaching All Workers
Mr Speaker, this promise must reach everyone.
For mid-career workers: the new agency must be a lifeline. Income support, skills training, and job placement must be delivered as a package and not patchwork. A worker who needs six months to reskill cannot survive on willpower alone. And at the end of that journey, there must be a job waiting.
For senior workers above 50: we must be honest. Ageism still exists in our hiring landscape. The new agency must not just train senior workers; it must work aggressively with employers to shift mindsets. Senior workers bring institutional knowledge, emotional intelligence, and resilience that no algorithm can replicate. They must be placed in roles that honour their experience, and not sidelined beneath their capabilities.
For lower-income workers and those without degrees, the SkillsFuture movement has always risked being captured by the already-advantaged. The new agency must reach down to these workers, not wait for them to come to the agency. Community outreach, vernacular language support, simplified processes. And critically, training pathways that lead to genuine wage progression because they have the most to gain.
For young people from ITE and polytechnics: do not assume they have it easy. Many feel invisible in a system that celebrates degrees. The ITE Work-Study Diploma has grown from 4 courses and 100 trainees to 45 courses and 1,600 trainees in 2025. The new agency must amplify this, creating celebrated, visible pathway for skills-based careers, with competitive wages and real advancement, so that choosing skills over a degree is never seen as settling.
Mr Speaker, the new agency must have these three principles to carry it forward.
First, seamlessness. The same agency that funds your course must connect you to a job that values those skills and track whether your wages improved. One account, one advisor, one journey.
Two, intelligence. Labour market data must ensure we never train workers for yesterday's economy. The agency must stay ahead of industry shifts and recalibrate constantly measuring success in real wages and real career growth.
Humanity. Data and dashboards matter. But what matters more is that every Singaporean who walks into the career centre, logs onto a portal, or calls a helpline feels seen. Feels that someone genuinely is in their corner, not to tick a box, but to walk with them until they reach a better place.
Conclusion
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I welcome the provisions ensuring that SSG and WSG officers transfer on terms no less favourable. These officers have built deep expertise; they are not just assets to be reorganised; they are the people who will deliver this transformation. They deserve clarity, investment, and pathways to grow alongside the agency that they are building.
The merger of SSG and WSG gives us the chance to build something better. A single, powerful, compassionate agency, that does not just create programmes to train and place workers, but to transform their lives.
Because better training must lead to better jobs. Better jobs must lead to better wages. And better wages must lead to better lives for every Singaporean, without an exception.
No worker left behind. One agency. One vision.
Mr Speaker, I support the bill. Thank you.
