CONSTRUCTION SKILLS TRAINING IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The shortage of labour has been plaguing the construction industry for a long time. The Government feel that it is time that realistic solutions be found in order to cut down the country's reliance on foreign labour which are mostly unskilled and whose presence is a further burden to its limited facilities and resources. The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and Construction Industry Training Centre (CITC) were set up recently in reaction to the many problems faced by the construction industry. The CIDB serves as a central, co­ coordinating body for the industry and the CITC was established for the purpose of providing skills training, testing and upgrading the level of skill of the building workforce. This dissertation attempts to study the formal training of construction workers as provided by CITC, evaluate the effectiveness of such training and offer some recommendations that may, if implemented, serve to improve the present system of training and rectify some of the problems created by labour shortage in the construction industry.