A SCHEME to encourage staff training during the Covid-19 pandemic has been taken up more than 60,000 times since its unveiled in the Unity Budget in February.
Employees from nearly 800 companies have taken up those training places under the Enhanced Training Support Package , Senior Minister of State for Education Chee Hong Tat disclosed at a virtual conference about jobs on Thursday. The figures are accurate as at June 19, although the number of workers who took part may be lower, given that a single employee can go for training under the programme more than once.
The ETSP, which was part of the Unity Budget’s S$4 billion Stabilisation and Support Package, gives all employers absentee payroll support at 90 per cent of workers’ hourly basic salary - capped at S$10 an hour - as a form of cash flow relief when employees are sent for training. Extra help is available for sectors deemed to be severely affected by the pandemic: tourism, retail, food services, aviation, land transport and arts and culture. Companies in these industries can get funding for up to 90 per cent of their employees’ course fees.