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Written Answer by Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng on Workers in COVID-19 Roles Taking Up Retraining Programmes

Skills, training and development

MP: Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim

Question:

To ask the Minister for Manpower how many individuals working in COVID-19-related short-term roles have taken up retraining programmes and been subsequently matched to another role.

Answer:

  1. Since the start of COVID-19, over 15,000 workers have been placed into public sector or government-funded short-term roles under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, to support COVID-19 operations such as swabbing or quarantine operations, implementing safe management measures, and providing patient services. At some point, the demand for such roles will taper down. For the moment, however, these roles remain in demand.
  2. About three in 10 of these workers were temporarily redeployed as part of the National Jobs Council’s effort to support workers in hard-hit sectors, and most of them are expected to return to their parent companies when demand recovers.
  3. For the remaining workers, as well as those who are not able to return to their previous jobs due to reduced demand or who choose not to, our job matching services and ecosystem stand ready to help them. The SGUnited Traineeships, Mid-Career Pathways and Skills programmes also remain available.