NTUC to help PMEs to be competitive? MOM also in the picture

‘Speaking at the launch of a Master Class series by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) last Friday (3 Jul), NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing told the audience that NTUC is keen to help Singapore professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) improve their skills and widen their networks so that they can compete better on the international stage.

“As our economy transforms, more and more of our people will be in the PME sectors, and (it) is also NTUC’s job to make sure that we help our PMEs remain competitive and stay ahead of the competition,” he said.

I copy this paragraph from an article in the TRE titled, ‘Chan: NTUC to help PMEs compete internationally. And my immediate reactions were, what was he smoking, where did he come from? Does he know what is happening on the ground? Does he know what he is saying?

Our PMEs are losing out to fakes and cheats and foreigners with dubious qualifications from funny universities. Do they stand a chance competing internationally? It is like unable to compete in a pond and wanting to compete in the ocean?  What is this e2i magic? Is it recognisable by the world, better than degrees from top universities?

I am dumbfounded.

The comments following the article said it all. And all I can say is ‘笑话’, he can’t be serious? Or is he trying to say competing with international talents here?

Swee Say appears to have a better grasp of the problems. He is going after companies with a poor Singaporean core. The MOM is going to scrutinize the employment pass applications and the qualifications of the applicants. Fakes and forged degrees will not be tolerated. IDA please take note. There are several other measures Swee Say is doing that may work, some temporary like stop gap measures, but generally he is looking in the right direction.

It is discrimination and fakes, stupid. Unless these two devils are pulled out with their roots, every measure will be superficial and will be seen as a gimmick to appease the people in lieu of the GE.

What I would like to see is a 3 month amnesty for all the fakes and forged degree holders to resign and go home. After this grace period, the MOM would go down hard on fake degrees, degree mill degrees and forged degrees. Anyone caught will be subject to heavy fines and imprisonment. The heavy fines are needed to crawl back the amount of dubious salary earned from their crimes. And they could pay directly from their pockets or sell their properties. Many fakes and cheats have already sunk roots by buying into properties here thinking that the MOM would not be looking into history as they have been here for a long time and their trails have been well covered. Fakes and forged degrees are just that and have to be combed and removed no matter how long they have been here and hiding under a thick layer of new legitimacy.

And to mean business, all organizations with 200 staff and above must employed Singaporeans as their HR managers to ensure that govt policies are not swept under the carpet or just paying lip service and mugging around with the numbers and distortions.

Is Swee Say up to it to implement serious and real measures to rid this scourge once and for all? If these two evils are removed, there is no need for the NTUC e2i training to compete internationally. There will be plenty of jobs awaiting our very own PMEs. PME unemployment rate only 2.7%? Who’s kidding? What about giving up searching or underemployment?

The foreign cheats and fakes are watching. So are the Singaporeans. Any half baked measures, half hearted measures, and wayang for the sake of the GE would stand up sorely like a sore thumb. The govt, the MOM and Swee Say need to regain the trust of the people and not be a joke to the foreigners, thinking they can continue to cheat them like before, silly buggers didn’t know what is happening and so easy to con..

Let’s see what Swee Say and his MOM will do to up the stake.