THE Marina Bay Sands is ramping up its hiring of retrenched professionals who have undergone retraining, after the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) was expanded to give professionals a 90-per-cent subsidy, under the Government’s new Budget.
The integrated resort operator has been busy interviewing 8,000 rank-and-file workers retrained by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
And it is now working with the labour movement’s training arm to fill 2,000 supervisory and management positions.
Sands said it will consider hiring professionals who have undergone the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP).
Said chief executive Ang Hin Kee of the Employment & Employability Institute, E2i: “They’ve agreed to work together to see how we can take advantage of this Budget which will provide more resources.”
Training institutes, including polytechnics and universities, are now designing PCPs for those interested in the tourism sector. More details will be released next month.
Some have questioned if older professionals in their 40s and 50s can truly secure a job even after taking up the PCP.
Asked this yesterday, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong advised such unemployed professionals to approach the counsellors at government career centres, who “understand where the career opportunities are” and can “help them be more targeted in the courses they undertake”.
Some employees have also been wondering, since the Government unveiled its Jobs Credit scheme last Thursday: Would employers pass the benefits on to them, if the company bottomline is in good shape?
Mr Gan feels it is “best left to companies to decide” what is “suitable” and “affordable” for them.
While reiterating that the purpose of the scheme is to ensure that companies survive and can “manage wage costs so as to preserve jobs for locals”, Mr Gan did note the National Wages Council’s recommendation that those doing well should consider giving out moderate wage increases.
Under the Jobs Credit scheme, all employers get a cash grant of 12 per cent for the first $2,500 of each Singaporean employee’s wages.
At least one employer, Sesami Group, has told Today that as a consequence, if its bottomline shows growth, employees could see a pay hike as soon as April.
Mr Gan was speaking to reporters yesterday after a recording at MediaCorp studios.
The Chinese “Budget Forum 2009” will be telecast today at 10.30pm on Channel 8.
- TODAY newspaper
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