Elevating Skilled Trades into High-Value Careers

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.

Architects, Not Just Adopters: Moving Beyond Concrete Infrastructure to Secure Digital Leverage and Empowered Workers

Motion on Reinforcing Singapore’s Position as a Global Transport Hub

Gerald Giam (Aljunied)

7 July 2026

Mr Speaker, I support the spirit of reinforcing Singapore’s long-term economic competitiveness as a globally-connected aviation, maritime and logistics hub.

Physical Infrastructure vs Digital Architecture

The government’s traditional playbook focuses heavily on building world-class infrastructure like Changi Terminal 5 and the Tuas Next Generation Port. However, focusing too much on physical infrastructure carries structural risks in a changing global economy.

As my Honourable Friend the MP for Aljunied Kenneth Tiong pointed out earlier, a neutral hub port holds traffic only by staying competitive, and a port cannot pick its carriers because carriers pick their ports. We saw the reality of this structural vulnerability when Maersk shifted its transhipment hub to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in the year 2000, and again in 2025 when the Gemini Cooperation shifted the bulk of their joint shipping volume to PTP. If we do not own the shipping lines or control the underlying cargo movements, relying solely on massive physical infrastructure leaves our economy exposed to a sunk cost dependency risk.

The global trading system is under threat from protectionism and geopolitical rivalries. In addition, there is the possibility that an opening of the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic, or the creation of a land bridge across — or a canal through — the Kra Isthmus will divert maritime traffic away from Singapore. The massive fixed cost of our expanded port may become a fiscal drag if shipping volumes fall short of the government’s projections.

The long-term justification for Changi Terminal 5’s massive capacity relies on historical hub-and-spoke models where long-distance traffic requires consolidated transit nodes. However, next-generation, hyper-efficient aircraft, such as the long-range narrowbody Airbus A321XLR, completely disrupt this model. These aircraft allow airlines to establish economically viable “long and thin” direct routes between secondary cities without requiring physical stopovers or refueling hubs like Singapore. As a result, Changi Airport may face the risk of capital expansions outpacing the growth of traditional transit passengers.

To hedge our exposure to physical trade volatility, Singapore must pivot from being just a physical gatekeeper to also becoming the sovereign digital architect of global trade. By anchoring the financial, legal and operational code of international shipping lines within Singapore’s data jurisdiction, we secure a stronger position of leverage. Even if mega alliances berth physically at regional competitors’ ports, the critical financial transaction layers and supply chain networks running those operations will still run through digital nodes owned by Singapore.

We must therefore rebalance our long-term capital spending. For every dollar spent on pouring physical concrete for Changi T5 or the Tuas berths, a fixed percentage should be redirected toward strategically acquiring, centralising and developing next-generation supply chain software patents under Singapore’s sovereign control—such as automated customs clearing platforms and predictive route-management networks. As my Honourable Friend the MP for Hougang Dennis Tan highlighted, Singapore must shift from being an outstanding adopter of foreign technology to a creator of our own proprietary systems if we want to capture high-margin value. By securing direct ownership over these foundational digital assets across key international trading jurisdictions, we can protect our economic independence and collect licensing rents globally. This allows us to successfully reduce our reliance on absolute, volatile physical cargo throughput, ensuring our national revenue is buffered even if global trade patterns shift away from our shores.

We do not just need a more competitive hub; we need a structurally resilient one that owns the software of global trade, rather than just the concrete it sits on.

Frontier technologies and Algorithmic Management

This strategic resilience must also extend to the second pillar of the motion, which champions the use of frontier technologies to anchor good jobs. While automation drives corporate efficiency, we must build a system that governs these tools to protect the daily working conditions of our workers. If we do not actively govern the code running inside our transport infrastructure, frontier technology can inadvertently lead to the extraction of productivity solely at the expense of human well-being.

This is not a theoretical anxiety. A 2024 report titled “Algorithmic Management practices in regular workplaces: case studies in logistics and healthcare” by the International Labour Organisation and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre provides empirical evidence of what happens when algorithmic management is introduced in regular transport and logistics workspaces. The report notes that competitive pressures related to cost efficiency and timely deliveries have driven an increased centralisation of control and monitoring through corporate governance structures, shifting the power balance within organisations heavily towards management.

In advanced logistics networks across the world, we are already witnessing these technologies being used in ways that constrain worker autonomy and intensify the pace of work. For instance, the report highlights automated postal and distribution networks where algorithms generate precise, hyper-optimised itineraries, giving workers compressed, exact time slots for each delivery. These machine-generated instructions can become so detailed that they leave minimal space for human judgment or physical adjustment.

The report also underscores cases of asymmetric accountability and glitch penalisation. Workers are uniquely vulnerable to connectivity issues and system failures. The report found that when software scanners freeze or experience network disruptions, automated systems can register these technical errors as drops in worker efficiency. As a result, workers risk being unfairly held accountable for mistakes originating from computer errors rather than human errors.

The report found that the introduction of digital tools had a positive impact on job quality in some more developed countries, but a negative impact in some developing ones. The authors attributed this to differences in institutional and regulatory frameworks. Businesses in Singapore have to use digital tools to improve productivity and efficiency, but we must also ensure that these changes will benefit workers rather than harm them.

We must remain firmly pro-innovation. Our goal should not be to ban automation or turn our backs on technology, but to govern it so that productivity gains are equitably shared with workers rather than extracted solely from their physical and mental well-being. To achieve this, I wish to make three policy proposals.

First, we should update the subsidiary regulations in the Workplace Safety and Health Act to mandate that workforce management and dispatch algorithms used in critical transport hubs explicitly factor in human physiological constraints. The code must include safety buffers for ambient heat stress, which is vital for Singapore’s tarmac and port environments, alongside a mandatory human-in-the-loop override. This will give terminal safety supervisors and operations managers the clear statutory authority to adjust AI targets by a safety buffer during peak operational strain or adverse weather, without incurring penalties.

Second, we should introduce algorithmic transparency and explainability requirements under the Employment Act to give workers a statutory Right to Explanation. Any automated tracking platform used to grade performance, allocate split shifts or determine contract renewals must provide employees with a clear, plain-language breakdown of its underlying metrics. This ensures workers have open, accessible administrative channels to contest unfair automated penalties caused by network disruptions, hardware glitches or system errors.

Finally, we should consider implementing a transport sector Digital Dividend framework. When transport, logistics and aviation operators achieve major productivity breakthroughs through the use of AI, those productivity gains must be shared. Instead of squeezing headcount or expanding workloads, operators should be required to pass these gains down in the form of structured wage increases or compressed, human-centric working hours with no loss in base pay.

Conclusion

Mr Speaker, we cannot allow physical infrastructure expansion to blind us to the shifting digital geography of global trade, nor should we allow frontier technology to reduce the economic agency of our transport workers. We must, instead, make it our goal to ensure that as our infrastructure and machines grow more capable, our citizens grow more secure. By implementing these targeted worker safeguards and digital asset strategies, we can ensure that technological progress serves the dignity, economic agency, and long-term resilience of every Singaporean.

Tradesperson Jobs

My “cut” on the Committee of Supply debate (Ministry of Manpower), 4 Mar 2024.

There are approximately 186,000 craftsmen and trades workers in Singapore. Their median salary is $2,700, and their median age is 56 years. Over 70% are foreigners. The low wages, ageing workforce and heavy reliance on foreign labour in this crucial sector is concerning.

I acknowledge the efforts by MOM, industry associations, unions and IHLs to professionalise these trades. However, attracting young Singaporeans remains a pressing challenge.

To overcome this, we first need to boost societal respect for skilled tradespersons — or “tradies”, as they are affectionately called in Australia.

Schools and trades associations can create greater public awareness about what tradies do. They are not all dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs. For example, licensed plumbers often do more supervision and inspections of plumbing works than the “dirty work” themselves.

Young people who prefer working with their hands should be encouraged to consider skilled trades instead of forcing themselves to study an academic subject they have little interest in.

Second, we need to lower the barriers for entry for Singaporeans to become licensed tradespersons. All courses and mentorship programmes leading to licensing should be more subsidised under SkillsFuture, even for workers under 40, and more places should be set aside for Singaporeans.

Third, to raise incomes of skilled tradespersons, agencies must rigorously enforce regulations against unlicensed individuals performing tasks that are legally reserved for licensed tradespersons. This will uphold the required quality and safety standards and prevent licensed tradespersons’ earnings from being unjustly undercut by unlicensed competitors.

Sir, for avoidance of doubt, I declare that I am the director and shareholder of a company that provides technology solutions to training providers.