More government support for SME human capital development

IN response to growing manpower challenges faced by Singapore's small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the government has expanded the services available at the SME Centres and introduced an HR (human resource) shared services initiative to support SMEs in human capital development.

From June, the five main SME Centres will have a dedicated business adviser each to provide human resource and training advisory services in addition to guidance on capability development programmes and schemes.

Apart from the SME Centres, SMEs will also be able to tap professional HR advisory and management systems through Spring Singapore's HR shared services initiative from May.

SMEs that sign up with the appointed HR service providers can receive funding support of up to 70 per cent on qualifying costs, including one-time set-up cost and subscription cost capped at 12 months.