PUBLISHED ONJuly 01, 2015 10:30 PM
The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) referred to several professional conversion programmes (PCP) in its reply ("Efforts to enhance PMEs' employability"; June 11).
The PCP for infocomm technology states that the candidate "must be newly hired and nominated by an eligible participating company for the PCP".
PCPs are not meant for people already in the industry.
They should be truly place-and-train programmes, whereby the WDA works with companies to employ professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) interested in conversion and send them for training.
They also need to be matched closer to the qualification and experience of PMETs.
To further assist PMETs, punitive measures should be taken on employers who put discriminatory job requirements on their advertisements on Jobs Bank.
Things like unnecessary language requirements should not be allowed. After all, English is the lingua franca for Singapore and most countries.
Singaporeans are not asking for privileges; we are asking only for a level playing field.
Colin Loh Yoon Fui
This article was first published on July 1, 2015.
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