| THE Government is setting aside $125 million to implement relief measures to keep the infocomm industry growing in these bad times.
It will strengthen three help schemes to help up to 10,000 IT professionals keep their jobs and to train the next generation of such professionals.
Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yang, speaking at the IT Leader Awards last night, listed three schemes that will be beefed up:
The National Infocomm Competency Framework: This is an online information portal which identifies the skills IT professionals of varying levels of seniority need, and lists where they can get training to sharpen these skills. The number of infocomm jobs on which information is available on the website has ballooned from 30 to over 200, including IT positions in financial and health-care companies.
Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme: From April 1, those who sign up for training in infocomm will have the course and examination fees subsidised by 80 per cent, up from 50 per cent.
Firms sponsoring their employees for such courses will be compensated $50 for each day of training. This programme will cost the Government $25 million.
More funding for infocomm scholarships: An additional $30 million will be put into the existing National Infocomm Scholarship and the new Integrated Infocomm Scholarship, meant for O-level students to pursue infocomm courses from polytechnic through university.
The rest of the $125 million will go towards supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and the rest of the infocomm industry, so they can develop infocomm solutions and encourage the adoption of IT.
Dr Lee is confident that the measures will see the industry through the recession and get it ready for when the economy turns around.
Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times. | 
