• Trainee allowances will be raised from April 1 to help those with difficulty finding jobs
• The Government will also provide more support for traineeship allowances for mature workers
• To encourage the hiring of trainees after their stints end, traineeship programmes will be shortened
• Employers are urged not to delay hiring locals thinking that the Jobs Growth Incentive would be “available indefinitely”

SINGAPORE — Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduates starting SGUnited traineeships from April 1 will have their maximum allowances raised by S$300. 

Those for mid-career professionals aged 40 and older will go up by S$800, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Wednesday (March 3).

In the Budget statement last month, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced that the SGUnited Traineeships programmes would be extended for 12 months until March next year, so that those graduating this year would also qualify.

From April 1, the monthly allowances will be raised for the following groups of trainees:

• ITE graduates can earn between S$1,600 and S$1,800 — up from between S$1,100 and S$1,500 now
• Polytechnic graduates can earn between S$1,700 and S$2,100 — up from between S$1,300 and S$1,800 now
• Mid-career workers aged 40 and above can earn between S$1,400 and S$3,800 — up from between S$1,400 and S$3,000 now
• Mid-career workers below 40 can earn between S$1,600 and $3,000 — up from between S$1,400 and S$3,000 now

The training allowance of S$1,800 to S$2,500 for university graduates will stay unchanged.

Other changes to the traineeship programmes will also kick in from April 1:

• The maximum duration of traineeships will be shortened from nine to six months
• Companies will not be allowed to take on a trainee for a second traineeship; they will have to hire trainees if they wish to retain them

Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Manpower, said in Parliament on Wednesday that the higher training allowances for new graduates would give them a boost as they are finding it harder to secure jobs.

“We hope that our recent graduates who have not been able to find jobs can seriously consider a traineeship,” she said during the debate on MOM’s budget.

The Government will also raise its co-funding of the training allowance of mature workers aged 40 and above from 80 per cent to 90 per cent. This means that organisations hiring mature trainees will have to pay 10 per cent of their allowances from April 1.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said: “With this enhancement, it is even more affordable to host someone with years of work experience than a new job entrant.”

As part of a S$5.4 billion boost to the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package to help jobseekers during the pandemic, there will be up to 35,000 traineeships, attachments and training opportunities, and an extended Jobs Growth Incentive that will support the hiring of 200,000 locals.

“To reduce scarring, we must be ready to deal with further displacements," said Mrs Teo. 

“Without the Jobs Growth Incentive lubricating the process, the movement of workers into growing firms and industries will likely be slower.”

The incentive has been extended until the end of September, giving employers who hire locals up to 12 months of wage support from the month of hiring, and up to 18 months of support for mature workers, people with disabilities and ex-offenders.

“We will assess what is needed after September,” Mrs Teo said.

EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES OF JOBS GROWTH INCENTIVE

Responding to Members of Parliament who asked on Tuesday for updates on the outcomes of employment support measures, Mrs Teo said that the Government has tracked the results of the Jobs Growth Incentive.

She added, though, that better employment outcomes generally do not depend on a single programme. 

The minister urged employers not to delay hiring locals in the hope that the Jobs Growth Incentive would be “available indefinitely”. 

Here are the outcomes of the Jobs Growth Incentive since it was introduced in September last year:

• More than 110,000 locals were hired by about 26,000 employers from September to October last year. This is about 5 per cent of the workforce
• Half of the new hires were mature workers 
• A third of hires moved into new sectors, which possibly signalled a shift towards jobs with better prospects, said Mrs Teo
• Three in 10 hires were not holding a job previously — most had been out of work for more than six months
• More than six in 10 received the same or higher pay than what they were paid in their last job