Training courses in Chinese beneficial to SMEs
By Esther Ng, TODAY | Posted: 08 July 2011 0608 hrs

	Photos 1  of 1 A Chinese book

Share

SINGAPORE: They are the heads of listed companies but, when they received SMSes from " powerful people" , they had to ask him to explain what the messages meant.

Sharing this anecdote at the Human Capital Singapore Conference on Thursday, Associate Professor Tan Khee Giap from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy said: " They know you are speaking English but they do not get the point … digesting it and doing something about it - that is really different."

If some training courses are conducted in Chinese, said Dr Tan, this could help improve the productivity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Noting that the productivity of Taiwanese SMEs was higher than that of Singapore ones, he said that " quite a substantial number" of Singaporeans are not functionally proficient in English and thus have difficulty grasping concepts when attending professional development courses.

He suggested that the Workforce Development Agency provide some of its training material in Chinese, as many SMEs will not come forward if materials continue to be only produced in English.

" What is important to businessmen is making money and creating jobs, but if we are going to stick to those rules, they are going to be in deep trouble," he said. " Those SMEs that come forward, perhaps do not need help so much - they are no longer SMEs or they are the top 10 SMEs - so I think that explains Singapore's productivity (levels)."

Concurring, precision engineering company Avantek director Billy Cheong said: " A number of SMEs are family-run businesses and not all bosses are proficient in English. There are a number of assistance and productivity schemes for SMEs, but as many of these materials are in English, these SMEs are unaware about them."

Kino Biotech executive chairman Ting Yen Hock pointed out that while Chinese is the mother tongue and working language of Taiwanese workers, Singapore is multicultural and that should be taken into consideration.

Certain industries like pharmaceuticals have more English-educated workers, while employees in electronics - especially those aged 40 and above - are more conversant in Chinese, said Mr Ting. As such, it would help if companies provide training resources and standard operating procedures in both English and Chinese.

Singapore's productivity dipped between 2007 and 2009, but shot up last year to 10.7 per cent - the highest increase since 2000, driven by robust economic growth.

Last February, the Government made raising productivity a priority and set out a target to grow productivity by 2 to 3 per cent annually over the next decade, more than double the 1 per cent achieved over the last decade.

Given that 99 per cent of SMEs here provide almost 60 per cent of jobs and contribute to 53 per cent of the gross domestic product, " if we can raise the productivity of SMEs, it will increase the productivity of Singaporeans" , said Dr Tan.

NTUC deputy secretary-general Ong Ye Kung, who was at the conference, suggested five ways by which productivity could be improved - including paying special attention to the " lowest rung" and having a more flexible human resources system.

" As manpower becomes scarcer, it would make sense for the HR community to take a hard look at its systems and processes, to ensure it is open and flexible, so as to consider every willing and able candidate for every position," he said.

- TODAY