New one-stop centre to help workers

$70m e2i building can offer training, job advice to 10,000 people a month

By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 2 Oct 2013

WORKERS have a new one-stop centre where they can get career advice and training.

The $70 million Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) building, a five-minute shuttle bus ride from Jurong East MRT station, opened yesterday.

The seven-storey building has the capacity to handle more than 10,000 people a month attending career counselling sessions, job fairs, training courses and skills assessment tests.

Facilities include a career services centre, training rooms and event halls for job fairs.

e2i chief executive Gilbert Tan said yesterday that the aim of housing different career services under one roof is to make the job application process easier.



The institute's previous premises at Redhill mainly provided job referral services for about 1,000 workers a month.

Job seekers would get career advice there but had to go elsewhere for training courses and tests conducted by external providers.

Mr Tan explained that at times, workers had to wait a few weeks to take skills assessment tests because the test sessions were full.

"By holding the tests in our building, we take over the scheduling and can make sure that the wait is shorter," said Mr Tan.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the two-week Employability Fair which started yesterday at e2i's new building. About 4,000 jobs in sectors such as health care and marine are on offer.

Job seekers at the fair said that they like e2i's building, given its convenient location and the different career services it offers.

Factory operator Netacha Normah Mohd Aslar, 50, who is hoping to land an administrative job, said that it took her only 30 minutes to travel to e2i from her home in Boon Lay.

Mr Anthony Chong, 57, who is unemployed and applying for retail assistant jobs, attended a workshop on interview skills before attending the job fair.

"I like that I can go for training and apply for jobs all in one place. It is convenient," he said.

e2i was set up by the National Trades Union Congress in 2008 to train workers, conduct job searches and offer career guidance. Since then, it has reached out to more than 200,000 workers.

Mr Tan said that besides workers, the institute hopes to engage more employers by conducting more training programmes in areas such as productivity and human resource capabilities.