Speech on the Motion “An Economy of the Future that Works for All”, 5 Aug 2026.

Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC)

Mr Speaker,

For decades, skilled tradespersons—from electricians and plumbers to lift engineers and infrastructure technicians—have not been accorded the prestige and pay that match their vital economic contribution. We have relied on foreign labour arbitrage and allowed unlicensed workers to perform tasks meant for certified practitioners, inevitably suppressing local trade earnings over time.

With a median monthly income of just $2,700 in 2023, skilled trades are seldom seen as a career of first-choice for young Singaporeans. Over the past decade, the local craft workforce has shrunk by 40% to 50%. Of the 186,000 craftsmen and trades workers in Singapore, only 28% are locals—and their ranks are ageing, with a median age of 56.

Yet, skilled tradespersons form the bedrock of our national infrastructure. While artificial intelligence can automate administrative reports and overseas remote workers can process corporate accounts, they cannot physically re-wire a server room, repair a water main or maintain critical infrastructure in Singapore. These crafts are inherently localised, highly skilled and resistant to remote replacement.

If we want to offer genuine economic mobility to our vocational graduates, we cannot leave the skilled trades trapped by undercutting from unlicensed workers, rigid licensing regimes and limited career progression pathways. We must elevate these vocations into respected, high-earning avenues of trade entrepreneurship and national pride.

Confronting the Structural Limits of Upskilling

While upskilling is essential, classroom retraining has limited utility in technical crafts compared to master-led apprenticeships. And training alone cannot resolve deeper market distortions.

As we look to elevate skilled technical vocations, relying on frameworks patterned after the Progressive Wage Model or the Career Progression Model will reach natural structural limits. While these models establish important wage floors across foundational sectors, their design relies heavily on climbing fixed corporate ladders into administrative or supervisory roles—positions that are inherently limited in number and compel artisans to abandon their practical craft just to earn a higher income.

To enable our artisans to achieve true, long-term wage progression, we must look beyond administrative ladders and restructure the underlying market so that technical mastery naturally commands the true market value of their craft.

The Market-Friendly Trade Competency Framework

To achieve this, we must introduce a market-friendly Trade Competency Framework that elevates skilled trades into highly respected avenues of independent enterprise and professional advancement. We must enable tradespersons to contribute to and build prosperous, scalable businesses, ensuring they do not feel stuck in demanding jobs with limited prospects.

The Economic Strategy Review (ESR) report rightly acknowledges that essential physical trades are vital to Singapore’s economic resilience. However, its recommendations continue to rely on incremental tweaks within employer-led models. While the ESR points to outsourcing and weak skills recognition, it remains silent on the deeper structural distortions depressing trade wages.

The report features an inspiring young electrician whose grit is truly commendable. Yet his pathway is telling: unlocking high earnings required four academic degrees, from NITEC all the way to a Master’s degree. I applaud his drive, but question the system. Why force a master craftsman through an academic obstacle course instead of directly valuing hands-on mastery and independent enterprise?

Proposal 1: Ensure Safety Standards Are Upheld by Tackling the Unlicensed Market

This paradigm shift must begin with how these essential vocations are regulated and protected in the open market.

Consider our current licensing regimes. Almost all fixed electrical work legally requires an EMA-Licensed Electrical Worker, while regulated plumbing requires a PUB-Licensed Plumber. While non-compliance carries statutory fines up to $10,000, a jail term of up to three years, or both, daily practice reveals a massive gap between the rates charged by licensed tradespersons and unregulated marketplace alternatives.

This economic gap tempts cash-constrained buyers to opt for uncertified options across many routine property maintenance tasks. 

Such choices carry serious public safety risks. Uncertified electrical work can cause loose connections, arcing, structural fires or electrocution, while improper plumbing joints can lead to concealed leaks, sewage backflow or water supply contamination.

In 2016, the improper wiring of a water heater to a three-pin plug by workers unlicensed to do electrical work resulted in the tragic electrocution of a 15-year-old boy in his HDB flat. Similarly, in 2020, an elderly couple and their son were electrocuted to death in their Jurong flat due to a similar unsafe installation of a water heater.

To protect public safety and shield local artisans from wage-depressing undercutting, regulators, including EMA and PUB, must enforce strict regulatory baselines for all market players, whether local or foreign, to ensure local artisans compete on a true level playing field of technical quality and safety. This will require the agencies to staff sufficient inspectors and auditors to conduct enforcement, and respond to whistleblowing complaints.

Proposal 2: Streamlining Vocational Pathways Through Modular Trade Endorsements

Second, we must streamline how local talent enters and moves through the vocational talent pipeline. Local manpower supply is currently constrained by rigid structures that force junior workers and mid-career entrants through a long, uncertain route just to secure a licence.

We should promote the skilled trades to students and mid-career switchers as viable, respected alternatives to polytechnic diplomas and university degrees. Training pathways already exist—whether through full-time ITE programmes or certification courses at the BCA Academy or Singapore Institute of Power and Gas for mid-career switchers. However, despite completing their classroom education, aspiring tradespersons face structural challenges when attempting to translate those qualifications into licensed, independent careers.

The structural bottleneck lies in the post-graduation licensing requirement of completing two years of practical experience covering a full spectrum of trade work. Trade practitioners I spoke to have highlighted that, in reality, almost no small contractor covers the entire spectrum of work. Expecting a residential service plumber to log experience across industrial supply systems creates a practical bottleneck, as current evaluation criteria favour multi-year commercial construction projects over day-to-day residential maintenance.

We can resolve the licensing bottleneck by implementing a Modular Trade Endorsement Pathway. Instead of requiring two years of full spectrum experience before a worker can practise independently, this pathway certifies specific, verified competencies task by task.

Each cleared module would legally authorise a tradesperson for that specific scope of work—whether in water heater installations, sanitary piping or wiring loops. These milestones are verified via hands-on practical assessments, customer ratings and structured peer reviews by master practitioners. This allows local apprentices to start practising legally and earning a respectable living for the tasks they have mastered, while progressively expanding their certified scope over time.

Proposal 3: Tradesperson Skills Ledger and National Trades Marketplace

To operationalise these modular endorsements, we need a modern digital architecture: an official Tradesperson Skills Ledger platform.

This platform serves a dual purpose. It allows tradespersons to log task-specific trade endorsements verified under the supervision of licensed artisans, creating an immutable record of their practical milestones.

It can also double as a national trades marketplace, connecting buyers—both enterprises and homeowners—directly with licensed tradespersons based on verified modular competencies, domain expertise and clear rate schedules set transparently by the artisans themselves. Clear benchmark call-out rate bands can be established—providing upfront price transparency for property owners while guaranteeing fair off-hours compensation for artisans, eliminating both predatory surge gouging and artificial wage caps. By streamlining matching and reducing administrative overhead for both small contractors and buyers, the system enables tradespersons to establish sustainable commercial clients, secure corporate procurement contracts and build long-term business equity.

Proposal 4: Addressing the Employer Hold-up Problem

Fourth, we must eliminate the structural over-reliance on an employer’s sole discretion to advance an apprentice’s career. Across skilled trades, the government currently enforces safety through rigid employer-tied licensing requirements, inadvertently granting employers veto power over an entry-level worker’s advancement.

Under the current market structure, established employers have little commercial incentive to sign off on the logbooks and testimonials of apprentices, who may later become direct competitors. While on-the-job training under senior practitioners remains essential, we must ensure that if an apprentice faces unreasonable administrative delays or employer gatekeeping, an independent audit mechanism exists.

An apprentice should be able to submit their immutable digital work logs and project portfolios to an independent Technical Panel for verification. This preserves direct supervisory accountability while protecting apprentices from career stagnation and employer hold-up.

Proposal 5: Setting Up the Singapore Guild of Skilled Tradespersons

Finally, to tie these pillars together, I propose establishing a new, autonomous entity called the Singapore Guild of Skilled Tradespersons, which will define baseline competencies, advocate for fair commercial rates, manage the Tradesperson Skills Ledger, and empower local tradespersons to self-regulate and scale their operations.

Existing industry bodies like the Singapore Plumbing Society, the Singapore Electrical Contractors and Licensed Electrical Workers Association and the Specialist Trade Alliance of Singapore possess relevant sectoral familiarity. These trade societies can be reformed and integrated as dedicated Chambers under this Guild. This will give every tradesperson a direct voice, remove corporate employer gatekeeping and empower artisans to govern their craft under a self-regulatory model similar to those enjoyed by doctors, engineers and accountants.

Under this four-sided partnership of shared accountability:

• Employers provide structured apprenticeships, with all progress and milestones logged transparently on the Tradesperson Skills Ledger.

• The Singapore Guild of Skilled Tradespersons acts as an independent quality auditor and serves as safety guardian.

• Tradespersons maintain verified digital profiles and direct statutory accountability for work within their endorsed scope.

• And consumers gain direct access to a trusted, transparent marketplace with verified quality assurance.

Institutionalising Professional Stature and Social Standing

Mr Speaker, elevating our physical crafts requires more than just policy tweaks; it demands restoring the social standing and institutional dignity of our artisans. When we give skilled tradespersons the autonomy to govern their own professions, command transparent commercial returns for their mastery, and build independent, high-earning businesses, we can fundamentally change how society views this form of blue-collar work.

By replacing rigid academic treadmills with direct market rewards for technical excellence, entering a trade will no longer be seen as a second-best option born of academic detour, but a proud, lucrative and respected pathway into entrepreneurship and master craftsmanship. Through independent representation, technology-driven competency tracking and structured apprenticeships, this comprehensive structural redesign will restore our workers’ leverage and ensure that national economic progress serves the dignity and prosperity of every Singaporean.

I support the original motion standing in the names of my Honourable Friends, Mr Kenneth Tiong, the Member for Aljunied GRC, and Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, the Member for Sengkang GRC.