The Ministry of Manpower is enhancing a programme that allows jobseekers to try out more jobs and evaluate new careers. The Second Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo said on Monday (5 March) said that the ministry is upgrading its current Work Trial scheme to a Career Trial scheme.
Under the enhanced initiative, employees who meet the qualifications for the scheme can receive a training allowance of between $7.50 and $15 an hour for up to three months, indicating a rise from $7.50 an hour for the current scheme. This means that the maximum amount for payouts under the Career Trial scheme will be $2,400 a month, double the amount under the Work Trial scheme.
Ms Teo said that the ministry is also working on expanding the current scope of Work Trial to provide candidates with more opportunities to try out better jobs that can pay them better. The scheme also aims to help companies which need more manpower to assess job seekers. The Career Trial scheme allows employers to gauge a prospective employee’s suitability for a job through a short-term work period before offering permanent or full-time employment.
The programme is rolled out under the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Adapt and Grow initiative, which aims to support Singaporeans in making career transitions.
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The employers who hire long-term unemployed individuals will also receive salary support capped at $5,400 under the new arrangement, instead of the current $3,600 under the Work Trial scheme. The ministry will help subsidise about 30 percent of the individual’s monthly salary for up to six months, Yahoo News reports.
To be eligible to register for the Career Trial scheme, Singaporean companies need to be actively hiring for jobs that offer salary of at least $1,500 a month and to offer either permanent employment or work contracts of no less than one year.
Meanwhile, the minimum period of long-term unemployment individuals to qualify for salary support will also be reduced from one year to six months. The candidates interested to sign up for the programme must be at least 16 years old and have completed full-time studies and national service, if applicable.
Jobseekers will also be entitled to a retention incentive if they can stay in the new jobs for some period of time. A one-off $500 incentive will be given when they have been working for at least three months on the job, and an additional one-off $1,000 incentive if they were to stay on for six months.
“The Adapt and Grow initiative is a viable way to help Singaporeans have better employment outcomes even as our economy restructures,” said Ms Teo.
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