BROADENING SCOPE OF PMETs

'PMETs, going forward, need to be T-shape. What does it mean? It means they need to have depth in their specific field of knowledge. But at the same time, they need to have breadth of knowledge in multi-disciplinary areas. So an engineer...may need to know how to undertake human resource management to manage and motivate his staff. He may need to know techniques on productivity improvement, a little bit of finance, a little bit of marketing. Many of these PMETs will also need cross-cultural skills as they need to go overseas.

We need to look at how we can provide more opportunities for PMETs, bearing in mind these skills sets that they need. Going forward, our training framework will have more targeted programmes for PMETs.'

Mr Gan, on extending more training and help to professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) who now form more than half of the workforce.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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