They will receive their allowance sooner and in regular instalments, to give them some cash in the pocket even as they undergo training.

Officials who revealed this impending change when responding to questions at a forum on Wednesday with 260 human resource practitioners and union officials, said that the details will be announced in a few weeks' time.

The issue of helping jobless Singaporeans was one of 11 questions posed during a 25-minute question and answer session on the new Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur).

The $600 million scheme, introduced on Dec 1, will pay for part of the workers' wages while they are on training - a move to encourage employers to send their workers for retraining, rather than retrench them.

Jobless Singaporeans will also be sponsored. The low-skilled will be paid $4 for every hour they are on training, and the higher-skilled, up to $1,000 a month.

The main concern among forum participants was the type of training courses that would qualify for funding. Several questions centred on the criteria that the authorities would consider when approving funding for, say, in-house courses.

Other questions touched on such issues as whether career counselling and training courses were offered in languages other than English, and if employers can be reimbursed their workers' wages sooner instead of at the end of their course.