42,000 workers have found jobs after Spur training

A year after the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) was launched, more than 260,000 workers have come on board. Of these, about one-third have been trained.

Giving an update on the initiative - launched in response to the onset of the recession - Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong told MediaCorp that out of the retrained workers, who were mainly from the hotel, food and beverage, and retail sectors, 42,000 have found jobs.

The programme, which will run until December next year, was well-received by small and medium enterprises.

Some 80 per cent of the 4,000 companies that have tapped on Spur employ fewer than 200 workers.

So far, $350 million or half of the Spur budget have been committed to help companies retrain workers.

Still, Mr Gan was concerned that the economic recovery meant some companies were scaling back on training.

The number of workers signing up had fallen from 30,000 in July to 20,000 in November - "partly because the economy is recovering and some companies need their workers on their shop floor", said Mr Gan, who stressed that it was not the time to "slow down on training".

- TODAY newspaper