Singapore aviation workers get reskilling support

Just two weeks after Singapore’s Budget 2020 announced a S$4 billion stabilization and support package to preserve jobs across sectors hit by the Covid-19 outbreak, details have emerged about how the package will benefit the aviation and air transport sector. Statutory boards SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore today announced extensive funding and salary support for employers that send their workers for training, while the National Trades Union Congress said it will provide an additional S$500,000 for unionized companies in the sector and is prepared to offer more if the takeup rate for training increases.

SkillsFuture Singapore will provide absentee payroll support at 90 percent of each worker’s hourly salary, capped at S$10 per hour, and also support 90 percent of course fees for training programs under its remit. The statutory board is also working with education providers to increase training capacity and provide more courses.

Workforce Singapore has rolled out a place-and-train program to prepare workers for new or changed roles. It will provide up to six months of salary support for workers who reskill under the program, at 90 percent of the worker’s monthly salary capped at S$3,000 per month.

Altogether, the initiatives are expected to benefit 8,000 workers in Singapore’s aviation and air transport sector. They come none too soon: companies in the sector, feeling the pinch, are already preparing for layoffs. On February 19, right after Budget 2020 was announced, SATS, one of the biggest service providers in the sector, reportedly instituted voluntary unpaid leave and asked all its employees aged 55 and above to consider taking early retirement.

It is early to predict how well the new initiatives will be received, but between unpaid leave, early retirement, and taking time off to reskill under government auspices with the chance of returning to a new or different job, there’s little question of what most workers would prefer.