SINGAPORE - Mid-career workers will soon be able to tap 40 courses in areas such as digital marketing and fashion business, in a new scheme to be progressively rolled out from April 1 to help Singaporeans with skills training.

SkillsFuture Singapore-appointed Continuing Education and Training centres and other partners will conduct the courses, which will span three to 12 months and involve industry exposure, such as work attachments or industry projects.

The new SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme by the Ministry of Education (MOE) has set a target to reach 15,000 workers annually by 2025.

It hopes to train workers for jobs in sectors such as information and communications technology (ICT), manufacturing, and food and beverage.

These are areas where there is strong hiring demand, Minister of State for Education and Manpower Gan Siow Huang told the media on Friday (March 25).

She was speaking on the sidelines of a SkillsFuture roadshow at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, which will be up till Sunday (March 27).

About 4,000 visitors are expected to attend the roadshow, which showcases SkillsFuture Singapore's initiatives and provides free skills and training advisory to the public.

The new scheme will combine features from the SGUnited Skills and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways - Company Training programmes, which were launched in 2020 to help tide Singaporeans through the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both of these national schemes will wrap up at the end of this month. The new initiative replacing them will be permanent.

The courses will be subsidised at a rate of up to 90 per cent for those aged 40 and above, Ms Gan said.

She added that there will be funding support of up to 95 per cent for those with greater needs, such as those who have been unemployed for six months or longer, for instance due to disabilities.

The fashion business course is a three-and-a-half month long full-time programme for individuals keen on roles such as fashion digital marketing executive, retail sales and operations executive, or merchandiser.

The digital marketing course is a nine-month full-time programme to help individuals move into e-commerce executive and digital marketing roles.

Ms Gan said job seekers taking courses under the scheme will get enhanced pre-training and post-training support, such as advice on the courses to select and career coaching.

An upfront skills training advisory service will help individuals to select courses that match their interests and career goals, while an employment facilitation service will offer career coaching to help them navigate the job market and land jobs, she added.

Courses will be available at this website.