Temporary increase in the number of IHL places during an economic slowdown

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry, Nee Soon GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will temporarily increase the number of places for tertiary institutions for polytechnic, undergraduate, masters, PhD, and postgraduate programmes for Singaporeans in view of the economic slowdown.

Response

1. MOE works with various economic agencies to plan the supply of diploma and degree places in the tertiary institutions, in line with national manpower demand across the different sectors, to ensure relevance of the skills and knowledge of graduates. This approach is medium to long term in nature, and should not fluctuate based on short term economic performances.

2. However, SkillsFuture Singapore supports many modular Continuing Education and Training (CET) programmes, across all sectors. Should economic and labour market conditions worsen, we will step up our support for workers through these CET programmes, to help them acquire the relevant skills to stay employed, or transition to growth sectors and companies.