Skillsave accounts will empower workers to get the training they need

THE labour movement earlier this week injected fresh life into its push for the government to provide all Singaporean workers with their own "training accounts", essentially a personal fund that they can tap to upgrade their skills.

In the eyes of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), such an initiative - dubbed the Skillsave account - is timely given the ongoing national push to raise productivity and encourage workers to pick up new skills in an uncertain global environment.

The labour movement, which - like the government - has long stressed the importance of lifelong learning, insists that workers must be prepared for the future as the country undergoes economic restructuring and transformation, and rightly so.