By Nicholas Yong

UP TO $40,000 in financial assistance is being offered to professionals with viable ideas for a social enterprise that will benefit residents in the North West District.

It is one of several initiatives being rolled out by the North West Community Development Council (CDC), to assist the increasing number of professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) coming forward for job assistance.

The money is being pledged by two volunteers in the North West CDC, as part of a tie-up between Republic Polytechnic and Spring Singapore.

Forty individuals, both employed and unemployed, are currently studying for a Certificate in Business Skills for Start-Up, with Spring subsidising 90 per cent of the course fees.

At the end of the course, participants will present their business proposals to a panel of venture capitalists. Members of the panel, which includes the two volunteers, will invest in the most viable proposals.

While the CDC's traditional focus has been on helping rank-and-file blue-collar workers, North West District's Mayor Teo Ho Pin said the new initiatives were a response to the 'sudden surge' in PMETs coming forward for job assistance in the past year.

From January to September last year, the CDC saw an average of 48 such job seekers each month. The number surged to 125 a month from October. It hit a peak of 300 in March this year before falling back.

Other CDCs have also reported more than a doubling of the number of PMET job seekers. From January to August this year, the South West CDC saw an average of 141 job applications from PMETs a month, almost three times that of the average of 49 a month in the same period last year.

North West is currently assisting about 3,200 job seekers, of whom 600 are PMETs who have been unemployed for an average of one to three months. They range from engineers to administrators and salesmen.

Other initiatives to help them include the PMET club, a virtual platform for professionals to network with potential employers, and training workshops on professional image and etiquette.

'Some PMETs encounter a prolonged period of unemployment, so they have lost confidence. Some do not know how to repackage themselves to prospective employers, while also having families to support, and this is worrying,' said Dr Teo.

One PMET who benefited was Mr Joseph Tan, 31, who had been jobless for almost two months when he approached the CDC for help.

'The image and etiquette workshop helped me to revamp my wardrobe and improve my corporate image. This has definitely been helpful in my new job,' said Mr Tan, who landed a job as a property agent just two weeks ago.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.