I REFER to the letter, 'Why no career switch under skills scheme?' by Madam Ng Wei San (ST, Jan 5).

The Skills Development Fund and Skills Redevelopment Programme are meant to encourage companies to upgrade the skills of their employees. These training schemes therefore support only trainees who are sponsored by their employers. The Surrogate Employer Programme, on the other hand, supports training of employees who are not sponsored by their employers.

For job seekers, the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) has many other programmes to help them upgrade their skills or learn new ones. These include various Place And Train schemes and the Professionals Conversion Programme (PCP). WDA also works with NTUC and community development councils to operate a network of career centres to provide career advice to individual job seekers.

Madam Ng can enrol under the PCP to acquire new skills and embark on a new career in growth sectors such as health care, real estate and infocomm technology. Upon selection by prospective employers, successful applicants will be given training course fee support by WDA.

Members of the public who would like to tap training opportunities offered by WDA may also visit http://www.wda.gov.sg/ or call 6883-5885.

Mohd Latiff
Deputy Director
Corporate & Marketing Communications
Workforce Development Agency

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