THE Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience is a government-sponsored training scheme that subsidises training costs for companies when they send their workers for upgrading courses.

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This is done in two ways:

• The Government will pay for up to 90 per cent of a worker's training in approved courses.
• Companies can also claim up to 90 per cent of a worker's salary from the Government, capped at $6.80 an hour, while the worker is undergoing training.

In the case of Murata Electronics, the company has sent 50 of its workers for training. They will spend 532 hours learning various subjects, from communication to teamwork, as well as vocational and technical skills.

The lessons are given by NTUC Learning Hub and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), and these will be held at ITEs and a training centre in Redhill.

Murata workers will get a National ITE Certificate in Mechatronics on completing the course, which is a recognised qualification they can use to apply for other jobs should they switch companies.

After taking into account the subsidies from the Government, Murata will pay a total of $13,429 in training fees.

At the same time, the Government will pay a total of $143,875 to Murata for workers' salaries during the 31/2-month training period. In all, the company stands to save $130,446.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 16, 2008.