Nurture the spirit of enterprise
07 Apr 2016
The Straits Times, 7 Apr 2016 - Excerpts from Finance Minister Heng Sweet Keat’s speech at the end of a three-day debate in Parliament on the Budget mentioned the need for Singapore and her industries to create the right jobs, develop the right skills among employees and enable the right match. Mr Heng cited the example of SP’s Diploma in Mechatronics alumni Winson Ng, who joined precision engineering firm Feinmetall after graduation. After working for five months, Winson was sent by Feinmetall for advanced training in Germany and upon returning to Singapore, Winson noticed that one of the processes used to bend needles for semiconductor wafer testing could be done better. He conceptualised a way to automate it and worked with a systems integrator to develop a machine for it. As a result of this innovation, productivity increased four times and operations run 24 hours a day. The machine also reduced the training time required for the process from nine months to one week. In summary, Mr Heng empahsised that SkillsFuture is the way forward for Singapore’s economy to grow and transform and that the government will keep investing in SkillsFuture. Mr Heng also urged Singaporeans to make full use of SkillsFuture to continually learn, get the skills the world needs and have the resilience to overcome personal setbacks and adapt to change.