15 January 2009 – Held at the Pacific 1 Ballroom at the Pan Pacific Hotel, the forum was organized by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency in conjunction with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the Association of Singapore Attractions (ASA), the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU), Tourism Management Institute of Singapore (TMIS) and Skills Programme for Upgrading & Resilience (SPUR).

More than 100 industry partners turned up for the session which shared the Government’s strategies and programmes to address manpower and enterprise challenges in this economic downturn. There were also sharing sessions on the Triparite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower and the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) to help companies and workers cope with the downturn and build stronger manpower capabilities for the recovery as well as practical financial management tips for better business decision making.

Key issues brought up included the facts that there has been slower job growth since Q3 of 2008 and this is expected to continue into 2009 with an increase in retrenchment and unemployment. However, there are still areas for job growth and they can be found in new investments, F&B, education, petrochemicals, healthcare and the IR.

SPUR is set to help both employers and workers by helping to cut costs and save jobs, to reskill and upskill and to build employee capabilities for recovery.

Continuing Education & Training (CET) is also set to double during this period.