Skills training funds extended - but with plans for shorter courses, eventual tapering

GOVERNMENT support for skills-training schemes has been beefed up, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues into its second year.

But certain courses should be kept short, Minister of State for Education Gan Siow Huang said on Wednesday, stressing that trainees can then "transition to employment quickly, with the support of our training partners".

The Ministry of Education (MOE) will review and reallocate resources from January 2022, given the government's tight fiscal position and a gradual economic recovery, she said in her ministry's Budget debate.

This is even as the Enhanced Training Support Package (ETSP) for industries badly hit by the Covid-19 downturn will run until Dec 31, 2021, instead of expiring on July 1, 2021.

The ETSP subsidises course fees for workers in sectors such as point-to-point transport, food and beverage, retail and tourism. An extension for the aviation sector was announced by the Ministry of Transport in February.

Meanwhile, the MOE has moved to build capacity for popular courses or those with "good hiring opportunities", under the SGUnited Skills Programme and the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme (Company Training).

These were identified as courses in sectors such as infocomm technology and media, professional services, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.

The SGUnited programmes have been extended by a year, until March 31, 2022. However, from next month, the support will largely be limited to courses lasting no more than six months.

Employers taking part in Place-and-Train Work-Study programmes can also enjoy wage support of 45 per cent until end-March 2022. The enhanced funding - which comes on top of wage support under the Jobs Growth Incentive - is expected to benefit about 4,300 trainees, said the MOE.

Ms Gan added that, after the pandemic, various SkillsFuture programmes will evolve into "career transition programmes that can strengthen our slate of offerings to our mid-career workers".

Still, she returned to the concerns over fiscal tightness that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat has reiterated since his Budget statement.

"Given the tight fiscal environment, we are also mindful about how we resource the next bound of SkillsFuture," she said, adding that the government would focus its funding on training "that delivers strong employment outcomes".

After the extended ETSP expires in January 2022, the MOE will revise the absentee payroll funding "to a more sustainable rate", compared with the present level of 80 per cent of hourly basic salary. The ministry also plans to cap the amount that each company can claim.

The MOE will then also phase out the SkillsFuture Qualification Award, which is tied to completion of full qualifications, said Ms Gan, calling instead for individuals to pursue training with "industry-relevant modular courses".

Separately, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said that a full-time four-year degree "may not be the best way for mid-career workers to retrain to enter a new sector". He was responding to People's Action Party MP Patrick Tay (West Coast GRC), who suggested that professionals, managers and executives already holding local degrees get subsidies to reskill with a second one.

The MOE will instead "review and enhance the various modular pathways to support career transitions, especially into growth sectors", said Mr Wong.

He added that university cohort participation should be taken in the context of how "work and education are rotated through one's career". The participation rate will be periodically reviewed with an eye to "the manpower needs of the economy", he said.