Over 8,000 aviation sector workers to benefit from support package
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(From left) Labour chief Ng Chee Meng, Minister of State for Manpower and National Development Zaqy Mohamad and Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education Chee Hong Tat being taken on a tour of a Sats facility by Sats Gateway Services chief executive Yacoob Piperdi yesterday. Sats will tap the support package to speed up training opportunities for its staff, said its chief human capital officer Lilian Tan.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
Toh Ting Wei
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Unionised companies in the aviation sector will be able to tap an additional $500,000 in National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) funding to send their workers for training.
The extra fund is on top of the $4 billion support package the Government announced in the Budget last month to help firms affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
The package, which aims to provide job and cash-flow support to help firms retain and retrain workers across all affected industries, will see more than 8,000 workers in the aviation sector benefit from training and support initiatives.
Labour chief Ng Chee Meng, who visited the facilities of airport and food services provider Sats at the Changi Airfreight Centre yesterday, said the package covers workers across the board - be it executives, pilots, cabin crew or service staff.
Several organisations involved in rolling out training programmes yesterday provided specifics of how companies and workers will be supported.
SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) said it will provide air transport companies with three months worth of enhanced training support to help them upgrade the capabilities of their workers.
Employers in the air transport sector who send their workers for selected programmes will receive an enhanced Absentee Payroll support at 90 per cent of hourly basic salary, capped at $10 per hour, and enhanced course fee support at 90 per cent of course fees, up from a baseline rate of 50 per cent.
SSG said it will work with partners to increase training capacity for affected employees, such as passenger service agents.
For example, it will be partnering Sats Academy to conduct about 50 training programmes that include skills such as handling dangerous goods and serving passengers with disabilities.
Meanwhile, Workforce Singapore (WSG) has enhanced a Place-and-Train Programme for air transport coordinators.
Eligible employers will receive salary support of up to six months to reskill their rank-and-file workers with new or expanded competencies.
WSG said this would ensure that impacted employees will be prepared when travel demand returns.
"Through the enhanced package, affected companies will receive additional relief measures when they send their workers for retraining and reskilling, to prepare for when business demands return," WSG, SSG, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the NTUC Aerospace and Aviation Cluster, said in a joint statement.
Mr Tan Choon Shian, chief executive of WSG, called on employers to take a long-term view to press on with business transformation.
He urged employers to work with WSG to retain workers and use the downtime to reskill them to prepare for when business recovers.
Sats chief human capital officer Lilian Tan said it will tap the package to speed up training opportunities for its staff.
"Sats conducts training for all levels of employees, from operations up to managerial level."
"This Enhanced Training Support package will help Sats to accelerate training opportunities for our people now, while aviation volumes are lower.
"In this way, our people will be well prepared to drive the execution of our transformation plans once the economy rebounds from the effects of the Covid-19 virus."
