WITH the economy crawling out of recession and orders streaming in, employers are losing interest in sending their workers for Spur training.

It worries Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and riles labour chief Lim Swee Say.

'They are short-sighted,' Mr Lim told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a labour movement conference.

'Cheaper competitors are going to become better. Better competitors are going to become cheaper. Those thinking they can go back to life before the crisis are going to be in for a big surprise,' he said.

His warning came on top of similar sentiments expressed by PM Lee earlier in his opening address at the ordinary delegates conference of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), attended by unionists and employers.

Said the PM: 'I worry that people think that since the worst of the crisis is past, they do not need to strive so hard to upgrade themselves.'

But global competition is getting more intense. As governments grapple with higher unemployment and slower growth, they will be even hungrier for investments and jobs, he warned.

The number signing up for courses under the Government-funded Spur or Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience has dropped from 35,000 in June to 21,000 last month, the Manpower Ministry told The Straits Times.

The drop is reflected in the monthly rate of increase in the number of people signing up for courses, which has slipped from 28 per cent to 10 per cent.

The need for companies to shift gears and use programmes like Spur to upgrade and improve productivity was also emphasised by Mr Stephen Lee, president of the Singapore National Employers Federation.

'I don't see how companies can reduce commitment on training if they want to continue to fit into the new economy of the future,' he said.

However, employers have told him they face difficulty in releasing their workers for training as business picks up. He suggested having more training done within the company instead of sending workers to training centres.

Mr Ong Ye Kung, who is the chairman of the NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute, said Spur will also have to shift gears from providing training in generic skills such as teamwork and workplace safety, to building up specific expertise in growth sectors, like training for seafaring officers.

'It's about very deep skills and developing a core group of talent to drive an industry,' he said.

Government support for skills upgrading was underlined by PM Lee too in his speech. He highlighted the two new national campuses for continuing education and training that are coming up by 2013 and will cost millions.

Unions could also weigh in and help workers to understand the economic realities and encourage them to take up training, he added.

GOH CHIN LIAN

This article was first published in The Straits Times.