Skills Upgrading
Workers need to stay relevant in today’s rapidly evolving economy as employers increasingly place premium on skills and abilities to enhance business productivity. More intense economic competition and constant economic restructuring, coupled with rapid technology and management advancements, will make knowledge and skills obsolete if workers do not seek to upgrade them.
Therefore, our workforce must constantly enhance their skills to enhance their competitive advantage and remain employable.
The Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ)
The Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) is a national credentialing system, developed and managed by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). The WSQ system trains, develops, assesses and recognises individuals for competencies that companies are looking for.
Based on national standards developed by the Workforce Development Authority (WDA) in collaboration with various industries, WSQ comprises industry sectoral frameworks which serve to:
- Professionalise the industry, where industry lacked recognised Continuing Education and Training (CET) qualifications
- Enhance labour market flexibility and skills portability in growing industry with high demand for skilled workers and professionals
The WSQ system is designed to be practical, accessible and affordable, enabling every individual to take charge of their own career and advancement. It is also a powerful business tool for employers to access and maintain a skilled workforce, thus enhancing their competitive edge and advancing their businesses.
You can visit the WSQ website to find out more information about the system.
Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR)
The Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) is a two-year programme (November 2008 – November 2010) to help companies and workers manage the economic downturn and invest in skills for the recovery.
The objectives of SPUR are:
- Cut costs and save jobs- Help companies to manage excess manpower and reduce retrenchment
- Reskill and upskill - Help local workers including those retrenched, upgrade skills and convert to new jobs; and
- Build capabilities for recovery- Strengthen our manpower capabilities to better position our workforce for the upturn
Benefits of SPUR to Employers and Workers
SPUR leverages on the extensive national continuing education and training (CET) system to bring together a full range of skills upgrading programmes with enhanced financial support that companies and workers can tap on.
To help companies and workers, the number of training places at CET Centres will be doubled from 110,000 in FY08 to 220,000 in FY09. There are more than 60 pathways available for workers of all levels, from rank and file workers to Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs), and this will further expand over the coming year. Training will cater to workers across different industries and skills levels, and will be highly modular to meet employers’ and workers’ needs.
SPUR for Employers
SPUR will help employers to manage their manpower costs and save jobs with enhanced support for course fee subsidies and higher absentee payroll for their local workers sent for training at CET Centres. This will enable employers to better manage their excess manpower during the downturn and upgrade their workers and capabilities to strengthen business competitiveness when the economy recovers. Employers can benefit in the following ways:
- Higher course fee support
- Higher absentee payroll
- More skills upgrading pathways
- Industry upgrading
Please read the 
SPUR factsheet for more information.
SPUR for Workers
SPUR for workers will help unemployed workers redeploy to new jobs and help in-employment workers to upgrade their skills. These measures will better prepare our workforce to seize new opportunities in the economic recovery and strengthen Singapore’s competitive advantage. The key measures are:
- Higher course fee support
- Training allowances
- More skills upgrading pathways
- Job search and training facilitation
Please read the SPUR factsheet for more information.
New Measures under SPUR
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has introduced new measures under Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) to further develop Singapore's manpower capabilities and provide greater support for companies and workers, especially Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs), affected by the downturn. They are:
- Increase in Absentee Payroll to better support training for PMETs
- SPUR-JOBS to encourage recruitment and retention of trainees of SPUR and other WDA CET programmes
- Professional Skills Programme Traineeships (PSPT) scheme for companies to build new capabilities in growth sectors
Useful resources:
