SECA’s president Mr John Tan was interviewed to give his inputs on the role of tradesmen in the 21st century workforce,

Trade associations agree that more should be done to protect and uplift tradesmen, and consumer education must be in place to enable consumers to be made aware of their choices of tradesmen. This takes a fundamental shift in mindsets, with clear markers of quality to enable engaging the tradesmen.

Young people tend to shun the tradesmen path as it is associated as lots of sweat, grime and back-breaking work, and even low remuneration. We in the industry think otherwise and agree that steps must be taken to better educate youth to join and excel in the trade of their choice.

In the electrical industry, tradesmen are deployed across all sectors and it is critical to continually upgrade our skills due to their various complexities in operations, regulation and equipment type.