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Singaporean Government Grants for Employee Enhancement

Samantha

There’s no doubt that employees are the lifeblood of an organisation, and a major part in whether it fails or succeeds, hence the schemes and grants in place for companies to take advantage of to either train employees or improve their quality of life and to adapt to the new norm in the post-COVID environment. Now, let’s dive into some of these assistance programmes.

Work-Life Grant (WLG)

The WLG (funding up to S$105,000 over 2 years) serves a dual purpose of allowing employers to work out flexible work arrangements (FWAs) with their employees and incentivize employers to implement job sharing for employees at the Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technician (PMET) level.

FWA Incentive

Some employers prefer their employees to work in the office (looking at you, old school bosses), but since the circuit breakers came into effect to combat the spread of COVID-19, most companies had staff working from home. The FWA incentive aims to enhance the work-life balance of employees by encouraging employers to have FWAs in place and companies that do have FWAs set up will receive up to S$70,000 over 2 years.

  1. How does it work?

For example, company A has 1 local employee working part-time, 1 local employee working on a compressed work week schedule and 1 local employee on job sharing with a gross monthly income below S$3,600 before the job sharing arrangement. The company will receive $2,000 per employee per year, which comes to $6,000 per year.

  1. Eligibility

To be eligible:

  1. Employee must be a Singapore citizen or Permanent Resident

  2. Employee must be on a permanent contract or a minimum employment contract term of 12 months

  3. Company cannot claim for casual or temporary employees

  4. Company must adopt the Tripartite Standard on FWAs at point of claim

  5. Company must commit to employees that they will agree to their requests for FWAs when it is reasonably practicable to do so

Job Sharing Incentive

Job sharing is an arrangement wherein 2 or more persons share responsibility for one full-time job. Benefits of job sharing include a 30% increase in employee productivity, 20% more cost savings from hiring, greater work-life integration and others. Companies that have full-time employees that regularly engage in job sharing will receive up to S$35,000 over 2 years.

  1. How does it work?

Let’s say employee X can only manage 50% of the workload that is assigned to him. His employers can hire a second full-time employee, employee Y, so that the other 50% of the workload is completed as well. The employer can then claim $3,500 per year for employee X’s job sharing.

  1. Eligibility

To be eligible:

  1. Companies must adopt the Tripartite Standard on FWAs at point of claim

  2. Employee must be a Singapore citizen or Permanent Resident

  3. Employee must be full-time or a minimum employment contract term of 12 months 

  4. Employee must be at PMET level with a gross monthly salary of at least $3,600

  5. Companies must have put in place a formal arrangement to redistribute workload amongst the employees and remunerate accordingly. The employees taking on the redistributed work can be existing employees or new hires

SGUnited Traineeship Programme

Recent or soon-to-be graduates in 2019 and 2020 might find it challenging to secure traineeship or internship opportunities due to the current state of the job market. Fortunately, the SGUnited Traineeship Programme is here to try to place up to 21,000 traineeship opportunities lasting up to 12 months for said recent or soon-to-be graduates. Benefits to trainees notwithstanding, companies reap the benefit of receiving government assistance and at the same time getting much support from trainees.

  1. How does it work?

Every trainee is provided with a monthly allowance with an amount depending on Traineeship Scope, based on the traineeship requirements as below. Trainees must either have graduated or will be graduating in 2019/2020 or graduated earlier and have completed National Service in 2019/2020.


The government will co-fund 80% of the training allowance.

  1. Eligibility

Host organisations must fulfil the following criteria:

  1. Host organisations must be registered or incorporated within Singapore

  2. Offer traineeships up to 12 months (Traineeships must commence by 31st December 2020)

  3. Provide clear Traineeship Descriptions and Development Plans that would provide trainees with meaningful developmental opportunities during the traineeship period, subject to approval by the appointed programme manager, Singapore Business Federation (SBF)

  4. How to apply?

You may reach out to SBF through email (sgujobs@sbf.org.sg) to commence a formal application processes. Organisations are also not allowed to list vacancies for the traineeship positions use #SGUnitedTraineeships on MyCareersFuture.sg until the application has been approved by SBF.

Enhanced Training Support Package (ETSP)

The ETSP is part of the Stabilisation and Support Package and covers eligible courses in selected sectors starting before January 2021, with the sectors being:

  1. Air Transport

  2. Arts & Culture

  3. Food Services

  4. Point-to-Point (Taxi and Private Hire) and Private Bus Companies

  5. Retail

  6. Tourism

These companies are also eligible for enhanced Absentee Payroll at 90% of hourly basic salary capped at S$10 per hour, and enhanced Course Fee support at up to 90% of course fees. This will apply to courses eligible for absentee payroll funding today, for example: selected courses by SSG-appointed CET Centres or certifiable courses by other SSG-approved training providers. It’s best for employers to check with training providers on which courses are covered under the enhanced course fee funding and absentee payroll.

  1. How does it work?

Table 1: Course Fee Subsidy Rates


Table 2: Absentee Payroll Rates

  1. Eligibility

Both SMEs and non-SMEs are eligible for funding under the ETSP if they send their employees for training which commence within the following periods:

  1. How to apply?

Enterprises in the aforementioned 6 sectors can approach and sign up for training courses with appointed training partners and apply for absentee payroll. Only the net course fees are payable and the appointed training partners will disburse the enhanced absentee payroll to eligible companies once their employees have completed the training and subsequent assessment. For more info and list of appointed training partners, click here!

P-MAX

P-MAX is established to help SMEs to improve the recruiting, training, managing and retention of their newly hired PMETs while encouraging the adoption of progressive HR practices. P-MAX also endeavours to help PMETs who are seeking employment into suitable SME jobs.

  1. How does it work?

  1. SME Eligibility Criteria


  2. Be registered and incorporated in Singapore

  3. Annual sales turnover (at group level) of not more than S$100 million OR employment size (at group level) not exceeding 200 employees

  4. Minimum 30% local shareholding

  5. Available PMET job vacancies which offer a gross monthly salary of at least S$2,500

  6. Hired a PMET within the last three months

  7. PMET Eligibility Criteria


  8. Must be a Singaporean citizen or Permanent Resident

  9. Possess educational qualifications that are Diploma or higher, and/or is employed or have prior work experience in a Professional, Managerial, Executive and Technician (PMET) position

  10. Have graduated or completed National Service for a period of 12 months

  11. PMET Eligibility Criteria for SC PMET aged ≥ 50


  12. Must be a Singaporean citizen or Permanent Resident

  13. Age 50 years old and above

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