Celebrating Legacies and Inspiring the Future – e2i stays committed to support the workforce in skills and employment needs as industries transform.

1. 27 July 2018, Friday – The National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year, marking a milestone in creating solutions for employment and employability for workers and the future of work in Singapore. A celebratory dinner was held on 27 July 2018 at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability and was graced by Guest-of-Honour NTUC’s Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng. Some 300 guests comprising union leaders, Government representatives and industry partners attended the event.

Celebrating Legacies

2. Due to rapid economic changes in 2008, some companies had to shut down operations and many workers lost their jobs as a result. There was an urgent and critical need for the Labour Movement, Government and employers to quickly develop a skilled workforce to prevent structural unemployment and to help displaced workers into new jobs. e2i, an initiative of NTUC, and supported by Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) was set up in the same year to provide a one-stop service to equip workers with the right mindset, skills and job opportunities to stay employable for life.

3. To help more workers improve their skills and be placed into good jobs, e2i played a key role in the employment and employability landscape through partnering Government agencies, training providers and employers to address manpower gaps, drive job re-creation and collaborate on industry transformation projects. An example of how e2i integrated tripartite effort to provide solutions for workers and employers was SPUR (Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience). During the global economic downturn, the tripartite partners came together to support training for workers during low work activities to prevent job losses and helped companies retain talents and workers to upgrade. This resulted in Singapore rebounding quickly from the recession with a ‘V’ shape recovery.

4. As the economy picked up, e2i also saw that there were gaps in productivity and worked with partners to improve efficiencies of companies and create higher value-added jobs. In 2010, e2i launched a $100 million Inclusive Growth Programme targeted at companies to improve productivity through automation and process redesign; at the same time help 100,000 low-wage workers through productivity improvements resulting in gain sharing for better wages and higher value jobs.

5. On 1 May 2014, e2i launched operations at the new Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability located at Jurong East. With the shift to the new campus, e2i continued to further strengthen the Singaporean core to equip workers with important employability skills to stay relevant and competitive. The building was dedicated to the late Mr Devan Nair who founded NTUC, revolutionised and modernised the Labour Movement as the first Secretary-General, through championing for workers and industrial harmony. To date, e2i has worked with over 5,500 partners across 50 sectors and impacted more than 675,000 workers through placement, training and productivity solutions.

6. As Singapore positions itself for the next phase of development, industries are transforming rapidly due to technology disruptions and global trade uncertainties. Workers will be impacted as the employment landscape becomes increasingly diverse with a pressing need to continuously learn and adapt. e2i continues to play a key role in the national SkillsFuture movement by equipping our local workforce to take ownership of their skills upgrading and creating new learning approaches such as the NTUC’s U Leap (Learning Enabled Through Active Participation) app, a mobile learning platform for crowdsourced, just-in-time and bite-sized learning.

7. The next stage of growth would require every individual to take ownership to constantly upgrade and acquire digital skills to respond to the accelerating pace of change and stay relevant in the future of work. Thus, e2i developed the Career Pit Stop – a self-help “Career Health Check” tool to enable workers to be aware of the attributes required for adapting to new ways of work, as well as responding to opportunities for career growth and progression. The online assessment tool serves as a starting point to guide workers in moving towards their next career goal. It can be accessed at one’s own pace and should be done regularly to check and plan for improvements.

8. Forging ahead in the next decade, as part of the Labour Movement, e2i will continue to work closely with the tripartite partners to represent employment and employability needs of both the Singapore workforce and employers. Working close to the ground and through our extensive networks with industry partners, Institutes of Higher Learning, Trade Associations & Chambers, and Training Providers etc, we will identify skills and knowledge gaps, develop programmes to close these gaps and skill up our workforce to take on new and emerging jobs as industries transform. We will also strengthen our partnerships with companies to create higher value jobs to give our workers access to better jobs and better lives.

9. Gilbert Tan, Chief Executive Officer of e2i says, “10 years is an important milestone for e2i. Established to interface with both individuals and employers to close workforce gaps, we provide a strong platform connecting our people throughout their career journey to stay future-ready. Our agility in creating workforce solutions allows us to understand businesses’ needs and in turn help them to increase their competitiveness to succeed in the rapidly changing market dynamics; while on the other hand, we are able to address the employment and employability needs of our Singapore workforce and connect them to better skills and better jobs.”