More than 12,000 people placed in new jobs under SGUnited Jobs initiative: Josephine Teo

Singapore

MORE than 12,000 people have been placed in new jobs since March under the SGUnited Jobs initiative, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said on Friday.

The initiative was introduced in March as part of the supplementary Resilience Budget to help job seekers cope with the worsening labour market prospects amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to the media after touring a career fair at the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) in Jurong East, Mrs Teo said that the government had been making plans for this difficult period from as early as February. "This is a tough time for job seekers and we fully understand their worries... The Covid-19 situation has evolved very quickly and its impact on the economy is quite severe and obviously the jobs at stake is something we are all concerned about," she added.

Securing jobs has been a recurring theme in the campaigning for the general election, especially as the economy grapples with the effects of the pandemic.

Close to 70 per cent of the 12,000 placements were in the public sector, including Covid-19-related, healthcare and digital positions, said Workforce Singapore, SkillsFuture Singapore, the Infocomm Media Development Authority, the Public Service Division and NTUC's e2i in a joint statement.

A breakdown was not provided in terms of temporary and permanent roles.

Mrs Teo also said that more than 16,000 opportunities are immediately available under the three arms of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. Of these, 80 per cent are roles which last at least 12 months, and two-thirds are for professionals, managers, executives and technicians.

These places include some 5,000 job vacancies from the Public Service and other publicly-funded sectors, and another 2,000 or so from the private sector in fields such as manufacturing, food and beverage, infocomm technology, logistics, healthcare and retail. Another 3,000 traineeships, or work attachments, are being offered by more than 300 organisations.

Finally, there are more than 6,000 training places for mid-career workers at training providers such as NTUC LearningHub, Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic.

The SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package announced in May aims to support close to 100,000 job seekers this year by creating new vacancies, traineeships and skills training places.

More details were also provided on Friday about a scheme for mid-career workers, called the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme. This will provide 14,500 traineeships and training programmes tailored to mid-career job seekers, so they can gain meaningful industry-relevant work experience while waiting for permanent jobs. They will receive a monthly training allowance of up to S$3,000 a month, of which 80 per cent will be paid by the government and 20 per cent by the organisation they are attached to. Application details will be released at a later date.

Supporting mid-career and mature workers is a key focus of the National Jobs Council, its chairman Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said. The council was set up this year to grow jobs and training opportunities amid the pandemic, and is overseeing the design and implementation of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. Mr Tharman was also at the career event, which was the inaugural SGUnited Jobs and Skills Fair, on Friday. He was joined by council members Ng Chee Meng, who is the National Trades Union Congress secretary-general, and Douglas Foo, who is the president of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation.

Under the training portion of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, trainees will attend full-time courses run by institutes of higher learning, and obtain industry-recognised certifications, said Friday's joint statement. They will receive a monthly training allowance of S$1,200 for the duration of their courses, which will be from six to 12 months. After government subsidies, the course fees will be S$500 for a six-month programme and S$1,000 for a 12-month programme, which can be further offset using SkillsFuture Credit.

Career advice and employment assistance will also be provided to help trainees look for jobs in the relevant sectors. THE STRAITS TIMES

* For more information, visit www.myskillsfuture.sg/sgunitedskills