SKILLS PROGRAMME FOR UPGRADING AND RESILIENCE (SPUR)

• Higher subsidies for course fees: 90 per cent for rank-and-file, and white-collar workers. Before, they were 80 per cent to 90 per cent. 
• Higher absentee payroll subsidies: Employers get more money from the Government when they send their workers for training. It is $6.80 per hour for workers aged 40 and older with A-levels and below, and $6 hourly for other employees.

The jobless can apply for training allowances. Low-skilled workers will be paid $4 for every hour that they are on course. The higher-skilled, with diplomas and above, can get up to $1,000 a month while on training.

JOBS CREDIT SCHEME

• Gives businesses a 12 per cent grant on the first $2,500 of the monthly pay of each local worker. 
• The maximum grant is $300 a month for each worker. The amount is equivalent to what employers would have saved if there had been a 9 percentage point cut in their Central Provident Fund contribution rate for an employee. 
• Grants are made in four payments, given quarterly. The first tranche of $920 million was paid on March 31 to more than 100,000 Singapore employers who hire more than 1.3 million workers.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

Read also:

» Recession survivors
» Getting outside the comfort zone
» Worst of times is best for training
» Retrenched accountant sets his sights on IR and Macau
» Just 23, she's her family's sole breadwinner
» Making the switch from computer chips to french fries
» School dropout on the road to tourism diploma
» Where job-seekers can go to for help