Recently in Singapore If you can’t keep them, train them. And get an incentive for it. That’s the strategy corporates in Singapore are adopting in the face of increasing lay-offs in the manufacturing, banking and financial sectors as fallout of the recession in the West.
With factory production lines grinding to a halt and businesses in banks, airlines, printing and publishing slowing down, the Government is giving incentives to companies to retain staff and use the downturn period to upgrade skills and ready employees for the upturn.
This could hold lessons for most countries, including India, where job losses of about half a million in the organised sector were reported by the latest Labour Bureau estimates for September to December 2008.
Five months ago, Singapore rolled out SPUR (Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience) to help companies manage excess manpower and reduce retrenchment rates. Under the programme, laid off individuals can approach career centres to enhance skills or learn new ones in fields where job opportunities exist.
Subsidy
SPUR, run by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency in consultation with the country’s manpower ministry and largest trade unions and employee federations, has built the $600-million (Singapore dollar) scheme to cater to the needs of blue-collared workers and skilled professionals. Under the programme, companies are offered a higher absentee payroll subsidy for sending their employees for training programmes and a lower course fees. The subsidy offers companies a payment per employee for each hour the staff attends a training programme. The course fee for employees has also been slashed, making it an attractive proposition for corporates.
Companies who were planning to shed their staff are also resorting to a shorter workweek. For instance, companies that used to work six days a week are now making the workweek four or five days, with staff taking a 50 per cent cut in idle day salary or utilising the time for upgrading skills or retraining for another or additional jobs.
“I used to work with the shipping industry. With exports to the US and UK down, I was one of those laid off. Through SPUR, I retrained for my present job,” said a taxi driver.
He, however, said in this business too the last few months have been tough as food prices are still high and tourist arrivals are fewer.
Career Shift
Under SPUR, the programme for PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives, Technicians) has a number of conversion programmes which enable employees to switch to a range of new occupations where vacancies are available, such as registered nurses, occupational therapists, media professionals, property officers and even preschool teachers. Technically-qualified PMETs are also given industry specialised training for employment in the same industry.
For example, a finance industry professional can specialise in risk management or product control through various training institutes.
Customer service managers can work towards a diploma in tourism, while engineering professionals in the pharma and biologics sectors can train in pharmaceutical manufacturing, a sector in need of skilled professionals.
Allowance
To make the courses even more viable, WDA announced that jobless citizens who join these courses would not have to wait to finish their training to receive a training allowance. They would start receiving a small amount when the course starts.
“This is so that the trainees are ensured of some cash to spend during their training period in this difficult period of their lives,” explained a trainer who has been involved in the exercise.
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