Ministry of Manpower: The tuition fee subsidy has served nearly 90,000 community members through various schemes

Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Defence Zajiha Zajiha on the tuition fee allowance on 6 March 2024. The following is a translation of the Singapore Eye based on Parliamentary sources:

Mr. Zajiha, Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Manpower and Defence:

Chairman, our Malay/Muslim community has made tremendous progress in the field of education over the past decade. The growth of the community talent pool provides us with a strong foundation on which we can give back and support each other as a successful community.

The tuition allowance has played an important role in enhancing the education and career development of the community. We do this through three pillars: first, by strengthening education as a foundation for progress; secondly, to stimulate the vitality and contribution capacity of the community; Third, develop future community leaders.

Last year, the tuition allowance served nearly 90,000 community members through various programs.

An important part is to support the growth of children and young people in their educational years. We do this by mobilizing talent and energizing communities.

Mr. Shahrier asked about the progress of landmark projects such as the KMM and MTS programmes on tuition fee allowances.

I am pleased to share that the KMM program has seen a 74% increase in enrollment between 2022 and 2023. In 2023, 1,700 children and 1,500 parents participated in the program. Parental involvement plays a key role in the KMM program, ensuring that they can confidently support their child's learning. The expansion of the KMM programme was made possible by clear advocacy and referrals from partners such as Family Service Centres, the Ministry of Social and Family Development and M3@Towns. More KMM instructors joined the program, and their number increased from 50 in 2022 to more than 140 in 2023.

One of KMM's instructors, Fisauer, a third-year student at the National University of Singapore, began volunteering during his military service in 2020. This prompted him to choose to pursue a degree in psychology and pursue a career in social services to continue contributing to the community.

The MTS program is the cornerstone of our education, and the 2023 enrollment of elementary and secondary students has increased by 15% over the past five years to more than 9,000 students. Today, MTS students are supported in 100 physical and virtual centers. The tuition allowance continues to improve the MTS curriculum with new subjects such as Biology and Additional Mathematics.

Mr. Valmy asked how we can encourage and motivate more people to step up and serve, especially those who benefit and succeed.

The tuition allowance provides many platforms for people to contribute their skills and passions to meet the needs of the community. For example, our MTS mentors have played a key role in the development of the MTS program. Ms. Anggreini Hamid benefited from MTS in secondary school and today she is a school teacher and has been an MTS tutor for 18 years. She uses innovative teaching methods to enhance the attractiveness and effectiveness of her courses. It is worth mentioning that all three of us – Minister Mr. Ma Shangao, myself and Ms. Rahayu Mazan – have all contributed to the community at some point in our lives as MTS mentors.

At the secondary and tertiary levels, some initiatives such as the Office of Youth Counselling help students reach their potential. The Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Ms. Rahayumazan, will share more information about these efforts in her remarks.

In addition to a strong educational foundation, our successful communities need a workforce that can get good jobs and meaningful careers. We want to empower our workers so they can strengthen our communities and our country.

Mr. Valmy and Mr. Salir asked how we can better support Malay/Muslim professionals and workers to adapt to the economy of the future. Tuition allowances continue to help our workforce develop their professional and professional networks, complementing the national efforts of governments, employers, and unions.

The Tuition Fee Subsidy has launched the Professional Networking Programme to support Malay/Muslim professionals in contributing to give back to the community and exchange ideas as they expand their networks; and helping young workers enter growth industries. So far, the tuition fee subsidy has established nine professional networks in the nursing, green and digital sectors; Four new networks are planned for this year in areas such as healthcare and media. As of 2023, we have more than 450 Malay/Muslim professionals in these networks, and the tuition fee subsidy will continue to encourage more professionals to join and act as mentors.

In professional networks and other areas, we now have about 1,000 Malay/Muslim professionals involved in the initiative for tuition fee subsidies – whether as KMM instructors, MTS mentors, youth mentors or as speakers or human libraries.

Chair, in a previous budget debate, I shared how companies are working with tuition fee stipends to provide scholarships to students to support their entry into areas such as biomedicine, finance, aviation, and technology. This year, I am pleased to announce that Micron Semiconductor will offer a three-year scholarship to engineering students at the Polytechnic Institute, as well as internships and learning opportunities for secondary and higher education students.

We are grateful to the company for providing other forms of support to students, such as mentoring. More than 50 MSD Pharma employees, including data scientists, as well as those in the fields of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, have signed up to serve as mentors to 120 ITE students through the #amPowered@ITE program.

As our economy and workforce continue to grow, the tuition fee allowance will continue to support our Malay/Muslim workforce in navigating career changes and seizing future opportunities. Through the M3 Focus Area FA4 on employability and employability, the tuition fee allowance adopts a community-based strategy in collaboration with M3 partners, including the Singapore National Trades Union Congress. More than 5,000 Malay/Muslim workers have received assistance from Tutoring Fee Allowance Counsellors, including support for job search and career-related needs.

For women who wish to return to the workforce after a career break, MENDAKI's Women at Work (W@W) program provides them with relevant skills and links them to employment opportunities. In 2023, the tuition fee allowance referred more than 140 participants of the W@W program to NTUC's e2i for career guidance and job search assistance, and nearly 60 of them successfully secured job offers.

One of them is Ms. Siti Raudah, who is looking for a job to support her family and three schooling children after her husband was laid off. Ms. Setti joined the W@W program last September, benefiting from interview skills and broader social and professional networking opportunities. Earlier this year, she landed a job as an administrative assistant in the oil and gas industry, and she says the program helped her reintegrate into the workforce.

Mr. President, I will now proceed to speak in Malay.

Our third strategy (in Malay) is to develop leaders who will not only serve the community but also the nation.

Ms. Nadia asked for an update on the Tunas program.

The tuition fee subsidy launched the Tunas Bersama M3 programme in 2022 with the aim of nurturing the next generation of leaders of Malay/Muslim organisations.

This 18-month program not only equips emerging leaders with the knowledge, skills, and networking to contribute to and lead their organizations. In fact, we want to support them in taking on more important leadership roles in the wider community in the future.

One of the participants in the Tunas program is Dr. Saeed Harlan, who is one of our young MMO leaders.

Participants can develop competencies in areas such as management, administration, fundraising, communication, and change management, and have the opportunity to be mentored by experienced senior leaders.

The first batch of 13 Tunas participants from different MMOs will complete their program in April.

These participants were able to apply the knowledge and skills they gained to work on seven community projects in the M3 focus area.

For example, through the "Dreams Continue" project, Tunas participants work with professionals from a professional network of tuition fee stipends. The goal is to provide job shadowing opportunities in specific fields for Malay/Muslim young people aged 15 to 17. This will help young people gain experience and expand their horizons in terms of future employment opportunities.

Young participants said the experience helped them gain confidence, exposed them to a wide variety of experiences, broadened their range of interests, and helped them better plan their future studies and career plans.

Building on the positive results achieved by this program, we will welcome the second cohort of Tunas participants in April this year and expand the scope of their project.

Chair, in my remarks, I pointed out the progress made in our community over the past year and thanked the volunteers for their efforts.

Our community is diverse and resilient, making progress in working together and sharing values and knowledge. We continue to work for the advancement of our community and ensure access to educational and professional development opportunities. We will also continue to ensure that our communities advance in the employment and professional fields, leading to success for individuals and communities.

The following is the content of the question in English:

The Chairman: Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad.

The Senior Minister of State for Defence and Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad): Chairman, our Malay/Muslim community has made significant progress in the last decade, especially in education. As the community’s talent pool strengthens, it provides strong foundations for our community to contribute back and support one another as a Community of Success.

MENDAKI has played a key role in improving the education and professional development outcomes in our community. We do so in three ways: first, to strengthen education as a pillar for progress; two, empowering our community to thrive and contribute; and three, grooming the community leadership for the future.

Last year, MENDAKI engaged and supported close to 90,000 members of the community through its various programmes and schemes.

One of MENDAKI’s key pillars is to provide support for our children and youth at all stages of their education. To achieve this, one of our main approaches is to mobilise talents and energise the community.

Mr Sharael Taha asked about the progress of MENDAKI’s signature programmes, like KMM and the MTS.

I am happy to share that our KMM programme for preschoolers saw a 74% increase in its enrolment between 2022 and 2023, with 1,700 children and 1,500 parents enrolled in the programme in 2023. Parental involvement has been an important part of KMM, to ensure that parents are empowered and confident to support their children’s learning. KMM’s scale-up was possible with the help of targeted outreach and referrals by partners, such as Family Service Centres (FSCs), Social Service Agencies (SSAs) as well as M3@Towns. More KMM facilitators have also come on board, with their number tripling from about 50 in 2022 to more than 140 in 2023.

One KMM facilitator is Mr Irfan bin Ibrahim, a Year 3 student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), who started volunteering when he was serving his National Service in 2020. Volunteering shaped his decision to take up a degree in psychology and pursue a career in the social services sector to continue contributing to the community.

The MTS continues to be the backbone of our educational programmes and enrolment for primary and secondary school students has increased by 15% over the past five years, to over 9,000 students in 2023. Today, MTS students are supported by 100 physical and virtual centres. MENDAKI has also continually sought to improve MTS offerings – such as by expanding its subjects offered to include Biology and Additional Mathematics.

Mr Fahmi Aliman has also asked how we could encourage and inspire more people to step forward and serve, especially those who have benefited and done well.

MENDAKI has many platforms for the community to contribute their skills and passion to meet the community needs. An example is how our steadfast MTS tutors have played an integral role in how MTS has grown from strength to strength. One such tutor is Ms Anggreini Hamid, who benefited from MTS during her secondary school days. Now a schoolteacher herself, she has been contributing back as an MTS tutor for the past 18 years. She adopts innovative techniques to make her classes more engaging and effective for her students. Just a tidbit, both — actually, all three of us – Minister Masagos, myself and Mdm Rahayu – have all been MTS tutors at some point of our lives too. So, we have done our volunteer duty at some point to contribute back to our community.

At the post-secondary and tertiary level, MENDAKI’s initiatives, such as the Youth Mentoring Office, help students realise their potential. Senior Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu will share more on these efforts in her speech.

Beyond a strong educational foundation, our Community of Success also needs a workforce that can secure good jobs and meaningful careers. We want to empower our workers to thrive so that they can grow our community and our nation.

Mr Fahmi Aliman and Mr Sharael Taha asked about our plans to better support Malay/Muslim professionals and workers in the future economy. MENDAKI continues to help our workforce develop their careers and professional networks, complementing national efforts by our tripartite partners in Government, employers and the Labour Movement.

MENDAKI initiated the Professional Networks to support Malay/Muslim professionals in growing their networks; to contribute back to the community; to exchange ideas; and to help younger workers enter growth industries. To date, MENDAKI has formed nine Professional Networks covering various industries in the Care, Green and Digital sectors; and plan to form four more new networks in areas such as Healthcare and Media this year. We now have more than 450 Malay/Muslim professionals in these networks as at 2023 and MENDAKI will continue to encourage more professionals to join and serve as mentors. To Mr Sharael Taha’s question, within both the Professional Networks and beyond, we now have about 1,000 Malay/Muslim professionals contributing across MENDAKI’s initiatives – whether it is serving as KMM facilitators, MTS tutors, youth mentors or as speakers or human libraries.

Chairman, in previous Committee of Supply debates, I shared about how corporate partners have partnered MENDAKI to provide scholarships for students to enter different industries from biomedical to finance, to aviation and technology. From this year, I am happy to announce that Micron Semiconductor will come on board to provide scholarships over three years to engineering students in polytechnics, as well as internships and learning activities for secondary and tertiary students.

We appreciate how companies also provide other forms of support, such as mentoring, to our students. More than 50 MSD Pharmaceutical staff, such as data scientists, and those from the AI and Cybersecurity sectors, have signed up as mentors to 120 ITE students through the #amPowered@ITE programme.

So, as our economy and workforce evolves, MENDAKI will continue to support our Malay/Muslim workforce in navigating career transitions and seizing future opportunities. Through the M3 Focus Area 4 (FA4) on Employment and Employability, MENDAKI employs a community-based strategy by collaborating with M3 partners, including the NTUC. More than 5,000 Malay/Muslim workers have benefited, including receiving support from MENDAKI’s Care Advisors on their job search and career-related needs.

For women who wish to return to the workforce after a career break, MENDAKI’s Women at Work (W@W) programme equips them with the relevant skills and connecting them with job opportunities. In 2023, MENDAKI referred over 140 participants from W@W to NTUC’s e2i for career coaching and job assistance, with close to 60 successfully securing job offers.

One of them is Ms Siti Raudah, who was looking for a job to support her family and her three school-going children, after her husband was retrenched. Ms Siti joined the W@W programme in September last year, where she benefited from support, such as interview techniques and access to broader social and professional networks. Earlier this year, Ms Siti found a job as an administrative executive in the oil and gas industry and shared that the programme has helped her to transit back into the workforce. Chairman, in Malay, please.

(In Malay): Our third strategy is to grow and develop leaders not only for our community, but for our country as well.

Ms Nadia Samdin asked for an update on the Tunas programme.

MENDAKI started the Tunas Bersama M3 programme in 2022 to nurture the next generation of leaders of Malay/Muslim Organisations (MMOs).

This 18-month programme not only equips emerging leaders with the knowledge, skills and networks to contribute and lead their own organisations. In fact, we want to support them in taking on larger leadership roles in our wider community in the future.

One of the Tunas participants is NMP Dr Syed Harun, who ranks among our young MMO leaders today.

For example, participants get to develop competencies in the areas of management, administration, fund raising, communications and change management, as well as the opportunity to be mentored by experienced senior leaders.

Our first cohort of 13 Tunas participants from various MMOs will complete their programme in April.

The participants were able to apply the knowledge and skills that they gained to carry out seven community projects across the M3 Focus Areas.

For example, through Project Dream On, Tunas participants worked with professionals from MENDAKI’s Professional Networks. Their objective was to provide opportunities to Malay/Muslim youths, aged 15 to 17 years old, with sector-specific job shadowing opportunities. This will help the youths to gain experience and expand their horizons in terms of future job opportunities.

The youth participants shared that this experience helped them gain confidence, exposed them to a variety of experiences and expand their range of interests, and help to better shape their future field of study and career plans.

Building on the positive outcomes of this programme, we will welcome our second batch of Tunas participants in April this year. That cohort will include leaders from MENDAKI’s Professional Networks.

Mr Chairman, MENDAKI will continue to support our Malay/Muslim community in reaching greater heights and empower the community to be active, contributing citizens.

However, each individual has a part to play to ensure that our community continue to progress together.

I strongly encourage our Malay/Muslim workers to take up the opportunities to upskill through the initiatives that were recently announced during Budget 2024.

For instance, mid-career workers aged 40 and above who are looking at reskilling can consider the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme. This programme offers a SkillsFuture Credit top-up of $4,000 that can be used for selected courses.

Workers who wish to take on full-time diplomas at the polytechnics, ITE and arts institutions can also make use of the enhanced subsidies from the Government.

To offset income loss for workers who have to take time off work for training, the Government will also provide a monthly SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance, capped at $3,000 per month, for up to 24 months.

ITE graduates can also benefit through the ITE Progression Award of $5,000 upon enrolment to a diploma programme, and receive another $10,000 when they complete their studies.

I am confident that as a community, we can strengthen the culture of contributing. And in partnership with the Government and other community organisations, we can ensure our community achieve greater heights in education, professional development and leadership.

(In English): Our third strategy is to grow and develop leaders not only for our community, but for our country as well.

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin asked for an update on the Tunas programme.

MENDAKI started the Tunas Bersama M3 programme in 2022 to nurture the next generation of leaders of Malay/Muslim Organisations (MMOs). This 18-month programme not only equips emerging leaders with the knowledge, skills and networks to contribute and lead their own organisations, in fact we want to support them in taking on larger leadership roles in our wider community in the future.

Among them NMP Syed Harun and he is among the youngest leader.

For example, participants get develop their competencies in the areas of governance, fund raising, communications, and change management, as well as the opportunity to be mentored by experienced senior leaders.

Our first cohort of 13 Tunas participants from various MMOs will complete their programme in April. Particpants were able to apply their knowledge and skills that they gain to run seven community projects across the M3 Focus Areas.

For example, through Project Dream On, Tunas participants worked with professionals from MENDAKI’s Professional Networks. Their objective was to provide opportunities to Muslim youths aged 15 to 17 with sector-specific job shadowing. This will help the youths to gain experience and expand their horizons in terms of future job opportunities.

Youth participants shared that this experience helped them grow as individuals, expose them to a variety of experiences and expand their range of interests, and help to better shape their future field of study and career plans.

Building on the positive outcomes of this programme, we will welcome our second batch of Tunas participants in April this year, and this cohort will include leaders from MENDAKI’s Professional Networks.

I strongly encourage our Malay/Muslim workers to take up the opportunities to upskill through the initiatives that were recently announced during Budget 2024. For instance, mid-career workers aged 40 and above who are looking at reskilling can consider the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme. This programme offers a SkillsFuture Credit top-up of $4,000 that can be used for selected courses. Workers who wish to take on full-time diploma at the polytechnics, ITE and arts institutions can also make use of the enhanced subsides by the Government. To offset income loss for workers who have to take time off work for training, the Government will also provide a monthly SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance, capped at $3,000 per month, for up to 24 months.

ITE graduates can also benefit through the ITE Progression Award of $5,000 upon enrolment to a diploma programme and receive another $10,000 when they complete their studies.

I am confident that as a community, we can strengthen the culture of contributing, and in partnership with the Government and other community organisations, we can ensure our community achieve greater heights in education, professional development, and community leadership.

CF丨Editor

Edited by CF丨

Singapore Parliament丨Source

Singapore Parliament丨Source

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