19/03/2020

Food Services And Retail Sectors Get Enhanced Training Support Package To Help Mitigate The Impact Of COVID-19

To help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) will be providing an enhanced training support package to help companies defray business costs and upskill workers in the food services and retail sectors. This initiative is part of the $4 billion Stabilisation and Support Package that was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat during Budget 2020. The support package for the two sectors was unveiled by Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade & Industry and Ministry of Education today. 

From 1 April 2020, SSG will provide time-limited enhanced training support of three months to help companies in the food services and retail sectors upskill their workers. Employers in these sectors who send their workers for selected sector-specific training programmes will receive: (i) Enhanced Absentee Payroll (AP) at 90% of hourly basic salary capped at $10 per hour and (ii) Enhanced course fee support at up to 90% of course fees, up from a baseline rate of 50%. 

SSG will work with appointed training partners to ramp up training capacity to cater to the needs of affected employees during this period. For a start, SSG is partnering SHATEC Institutes Pte. Ltd., Asian Culinary Institute and At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy for the food services sector, and NTUC LearningHub Pte Ltd and Singapore Institute of Retail Studies for the retail sector. 

Mr Ong Tze-Ch’in, Chief Executive of SSG said, “We urge companies in the food services and retail sectors to actively tap on this enhanced training support package. This seeks to uplift the capabilities of their workforce during this period of uncertainty. A skilled workforce is key in helping businesses to recover and strengthen market competitiveness in the long run.”