Type of issue: skills training and costs
15
10, 2026
Fantastic salary, easy job. What can go wrong?
An office worker paid $12,000 and comes to Singapore believing he will be a construction supervisor. Naturally, many things go wrong.
20
08, 2026
No-brainer: Training is essential for technology adoption and productivity
Singapore's skills training for migrant construction workers is a sham because the present recruitment system works against it. We propose a new model for recruitment and training.
17
04, 2026
Agent said basic salary would be $1,550; on IPA it was $800
One day before his flight to Singapore, a first-time worker was handed an In-principle Approval showing his salary to be half of what he had agreed with the agent.
12
11, 2025
Our comments on MOM’s migrant worker survey 2024, part 1 (skills and training)
Difficult to get workers with the needed skills, employers say. Look more closely, and we also see a huge reluctance to sponsor workers for training, or even to give them time off to do so.
31
10, 2025
Seven joyless workers, part 2
Seven workers recruited by the extended family of a husband-and-wife couple based in Singapore paid $9,000 each to get jobs jere. Big salaries promised, then stopped altogether.
25
10, 2025
Seven joyless workers, part 1
There's a loophole in the law by which a migrant worker with absolutely no training in basic construction skills can become a construction worker. It's a backdoor via the S-Pass.
19
09, 2025
Foolish questions
A first-time construction worker from Bangladesh walks us through the months in which he prepared for a working life in Singapore. He spent 15 months in preparation. His working life was 6 months. We haven't even mentioned money!
30
08, 2025
Fog and minefields
(Mis)information given to migrant workers before they decide to take up a job, inability to ask the right questions, reliance on agents can lay the ground for serious difficulties after they start work.
10
05, 2025
Management executives washing dishes
In quick succession, many cases that looked like a new type of job scam surfaced. Agents and employers appear to be exploiting weaknesses in scrutiny and vetting in MOM's IPA process. Victims come to TWC2 one after another.
31
12, 2024
Worker invested $1,000 to upgrade himself; then a letter from MOM arrived
A worker went through a skills upgrading course and took an exam. He passed. All went well for six years untill a letter from MOM arrived at his employer's office.