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Oral Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo Minister for Manpower to PQ on SGUnited Traineeship Applications and Matches

NOTICE PAPER NO. 43 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON 14 OCTOBER 2020 QUESTION NO. 101 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Ms Carrie Tan

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) how long will the SGUnited Traineeship programme be available for; and (b) between ensuring adequate scrutiny and efficient processing of SGUnited Traineeship applications, how many full-time equivalent staff does the Singapore Business Federation currently have and is projecting to hire and train in the next six to 12 months so as to shorten processing time to help jobseekers and graduates start work sooner since they have found employers keen to hire them.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 67 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON 14 OCTOBER 2020 QUESTION NO. 209 FOR ORAL ANSWER

Mr: Mr Liang Eng Hwa

To ask the Minister for Manpower since the set-up of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres (a) how many Singaporeans have sought assistance at the centres; (b) how many successful job and traineeship matches have been made; and (c) how many training and skills placements have been made.

Answer:

  1. The National Jobs Council is coordinating efforts to provide job, traineeship, attachment and training opportunities for jobseekers under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.

  2. The SGUnited Traineeships and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programmes were introduced to provide company-hosted traineeship and attachment opportunities for recent graduates and mid-career jobseekers respectively. These programmes aim to help jobseekers who are unable to find permanent jobs in the current job market gain industry-relevant skills and build professional networks so as to boost their employability.

  3. The SGUnited Traineeships Programme was launched on 1 June 2020, and the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme, on 1 August 2020. Workforce Singapore (WSG) and its programme manager, the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), have worked closely with host companies to open up earlier-approved traineeship positions as company attachments for mid-career individuals under the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme as well.

  4. By now, over 20,500 traineeship and company attachment opportunities have been made available. The top five sectors which account for more than half of the openings are Financial Services, Infocomm Technology and Media, Professional Services, Wholesale Trade and Electronics. More than 2,800 local jobseekers have been placed.

  5. Although the focus must now be to secure more successful placements, SBF continues to accept new applications to host company attachments for mid-career individuals that commence before 31 Mar 2021. The SBF team has a dedicated team of 25, of which 80% has been filled and will be reaching full strength by end-October. I had earlier updated the House that SBF undertakes a rigorous screening process and scrutinises each application to ensure that host organisations structure their traineeships and attachments appropriately with clear development plans, so that participants can have a positive and meaningful experience. How quickly an employer's application is approved depends in part on the comprehensiveness of its submission. Factoring in time for SBF to seek clarifications and enhancement, most applications are approved within 4 weeks. This is, however, not a key bottleneck as there are already many existing openings available to jobseekers. After suitable matches are found and necessary supporting documents are submitted to SBF, the traineeship or company attachment can commence.

  6. To help our local jobseekers access the available jobs and skills opportunities, we have brought career matching services closer to the heartlands. We have launched the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres in phases since early July and by end-August, one had been set up across all 24 HDB towns. Although all satellite career centres were only in operation from end-August, Career Ambassadors have advised around 4,200 jobseekers by now.

  7. Jobseekers are reached through multiple channels and assisted through a variety of means. It is therefore more useful to consider their collective impact. Between January and August this year, we have provided career matching services to about 44,200 jobseekers through the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres as well as WSG and NTUC’s e2i’s five permanent career centres. Since the launch of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package in April 2020, we have placed 33,100 jobseekers into job, traineeship, attachment, and training opportunities. This is in spite of a two-month lockdown and the deep economic recession. We will continue to curate more opportunities while seeking to increase placements of jobseekers.