Committee of Supply 2024: Factsheet on Career Conversion Programme and CareersFinder Announcements

FACTSHEET ON CAREER CONVERSION PROGRAMME AND CAREERSFINDER ANNOUNCEMENTS AT COS 2024

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will be enhancing Workforce Singapore’s Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) and provide an update on the CareersFinder tool on the MyCareersFuture portal.

ENHANCEMENTS TO THE CAREER CONVERSION PROGRAMMES

2. CCPs provide employers with salary support to support mid-career new hires or existing employees to reskill and take up new job roles with good longer-term prospects. As announced in MOM’s COS 2024, MOM will increase CCP salary support caps and expand eligibility of existing employees who qualify for reskilling into growth jobs.

CCP: Expand Salary Support

3. For mature or long-term unemployed workers who are eligible for up to 90% salary support, the salary support cap will be raised from $6,000 to $7,500 per month. For other CCP participants who are eligible for up to 70% salary support, we will also increase the salary support cap from $4,000 to $5,000 per month. After these enhancements, employers can receive up to $45,000 of salary support for each trainee for a typical six-month programme. More information on changes to the funding rates can be found at Annex A.

CCP: Expand Eligible Job Roles

4. Currently, CCP reskilling support for existing employees is limited to employees presently in at-risk or vulnerable job roles. Going forward, we will support reskilling of any existing employee taking up growth jobs identified under the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) or Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs).

CCP: Incorporate Structured Career Planning (SCP) workshops for employers/ HR

5. To enable employers to prepare their workers for job switches, we will incorporate Structured Career Planning (SCP) workshops for employers/HR to better support their employees embarking on CCP, starting with sectors such as Financial Services, Infocomm and Media, Retail and Precision Engineering. Through the SCP workshops, prospective employers/HR will be able to conduct meaningful one-to-one career conversations with existing employees identified to undergo reskilling into new growth job roles under CCP. This will equip line managers and HR with capabilities to support their workers in developing career development plans.

UPDATE ON CAREERSFINDER

6. CareersFinder is an integrated jobs and training recommender that uses data on skills adjacencies and job transitions in the labour market to help jobseekers to identify potential career opportunities, personalised based on their individual profiles, and recommend suitable training programmes to help them achieve their career goals. In its first six months, more than 15,000 individuals have used the CareersFinder tool on Workforce Singapore’s MyCareersFuture portal. The early signs are encouraging as we find these workers do go on to broaden their horizons by applying for jobs across a wider range of occupations.

7. In the coming year, the Government will continue to refine CareersFinder and expand the suite of support for workers and employers. More information on CareersFinder can be found at Annex B.

Annex A

FACTSHEET ON WSG’S CAREER CONVERSION PROGRAMMES

Workforce Singapore’s Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs) provide employers with salary support to support mid-career new hires or existing employees to reskill and take up new job roles with good longer-term prospects.

1) CCP Modes:

a) Place-and-Train: Company hires jobseeker and puts the individual through on-the-job training (OJT) or industry-recognised training to take on a new growth job role.
b) Attach-and-Train: Company acts as host employer to provide jobseeker with training and work attachments, in growth jobs roles where there are good prospects for placement.
c) Job Redesign (JR) Reskilling: Company sends an existing employee for reskilling, to take on growth job roles aligned to industry Transformation Maps (ITMs)/Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs). Growth jobs roles are emerging or good job opportunities with long-term prospects for progression, identified in each sector in response to how the industry is expected to transform over time.

The types of training that mid-career individuals would undergo through the CCPs are broadly summarised in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Types of CCP Training

2) Coverage of CCPs

WSG currently offers CCPs in around 30 sectors to help mid-career jobseekers or existing employees reskill and take on new job roles with good prospects and opportunities for progression. They are developed in close collaboration with the relevant stakeholders such as Sectoral Agencies and Industry Partners.

The CCPs support reskilling in growth job roles aligned with the sectoral development and trends identified within the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) and Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs). New CCPs will also be introduced over time through our continued collaboration with our industry partners.

3) Benefits of CCPs

• Facilitate recruitment of career switchers to meet employers’ manpower needs
• Help mid-career individuals to reskill and take on new job roles
• Leverage structured industry-recognised training
• Reskill existing employees to take on new growth job roles aligned with Industry Transformation Maps/Jobs Transformation Maps
• Tap on Government funding through Salary Support / Training Allowance

4) Funding Support

Place-and-Train CCPs and JR-Reskilling CCPs
a. WSG funding support will be provided to Employers.
b. Employers will co-fund the remaining salary.

From 1 April 2024¹

Table 2: Funding Rates for Place-and-Train CCPs / JR-Reskilling CCPs

Table 3: Funding Rates for Place-and-Train CCPs / JR-Reskilling CCPs

* For selected CCPs where facilitated/structured training is required for individuals to undergo career conversion, course fee subsidy of 70% will be provided. Where applicable, employers can receive a 20% course fee subsidy top-up from SSG’s SkillsFuture Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy for mature SCs, or a 20% course fee subsidy top-up from SSG’s Enhanced Training Support for SMEs for SME-sponsored SC/PR employees.

Attach-and-Train CCPs

a. WSG funding support will be provided to Trainees.
b. Hosting Employers will co-fund at least an additional 10% of prevailing salary

From 1 April 2024

Table 4: Funding Rates for Attach-and-Train CCPs

#Based on jobs the trainee is being prepared for, to be determined by WSG for each Attach-and-Train CCP

Before 1 April 2024

Table 5: Funding Rates for Attach-and-Train CCPs

#Based on jobs the trainee is being prepared for, to be determined by WSG for each Attach-and-Train CCP

5) Eligibility Criteria
Interested mid-career individuals and companies will need to meet the following criteria:

Mid-career individuals:

• Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Minimum 21 years old
• Graduated, or completed National Service, for at least 2 years⁴
• Career conversion is required –
a) New Hire: New job role trained for under the CCP should be substantially different from previous job role(s),⁵
b) Existing Employee: New job role should be growth job roles identified under the Industry Transformation Map (ITMs)/Jobs Transformation Map (JTMs)

• Able to commit to full-time employment or attachment in a participating company

Beyond the general eligibility criteria, there may be other course-specific entry criteria and employer-specific shortlisting process may apply for different CCPs. In general, individuals applying for CCPs should also not be shareholders, immediate ex-employees of the company or related entities, or be related to shareholders of the hiring company. Please refer to the FAQs for more details on these exclusions.

Companies:
Place-and-Train / Job Redesign (JR) Reskilling:

The participating company must fulfil the following criteria:

• Registered or incorporated in Singapore

• Must be able to offer a full-time employment contract on permanent terms or on contract terms that are no less than one (1) year, directly related to the job which the CCP is for, with remuneration    that is commensurate with the market rate

• Commit to the CCP training arrangements for the mid-career individuals that they have selected

• Be committed to work with WSG or its appointed partner on the necessary administrative matters related to the programmes

Attach-and-Train:
Hosting employers will need to meet the following criteria:

• Registered or incorporated in Singapore
• Offer full-time attachment positions directly relevant to identified Attach-and-Train CCP job occupations
• Commit to Attach-and-Train CCP training arrangements
• Be committed to work with WSG or its appointed partner on programme administrative requirements

7) How to Apply?
Interested individuals and employers can explore the various CCPs available and register for them at the WSG website.

Annex B

FACTSHEET ON CAREERSFINDER

CareersFinder is a feature on Workforce Singapore (WSG)’s MyCareersFuture portal to empower all individuals to take charge of their career health by allowing users to better plan their upskilling and career needs through personalised jobs and skills insights. This tool forms part of a broader effort to improve the career health of Singaporeans and was launched in July 2023.

2 Available on WSG’s MyCareersFuture portal, CareersFinder is a personalised jobs and skills recommender which provides a more seamless user experience for individuals looking to upskill or make a career switch to progress in their careers. It uses data on skills adjacencies and job transitions in the labour market to help jobseekers identify potential career opportunities based on their individual profiles and recommend suitable training programmes to help them achieve their respective career goals.

3 Currently, individuals looking to progress in their careers or explore a new role would need to research on the career opportunities and determine their upskilling needs and suitable training courses. CareersFinder consolidates these information and services from across MyCareersFuture and MySkillsFuture⁶, to provide users with personalised jobs and skills related recommendations, generated from their responses to a series of quiz questions.

4 The CareersFinder tool harnesses data and artificial intelligence to provide jobseekers with more personalised jobs and skills insights to improve job matching. An example of a CareersFinder user journey is as follows:

5 CareersFinder would benefit all individuals, including:

a) Individuals who wish to explore new career opportunities but do not know where to start;
b) Individuals who wish to branch out into adjacent job scopes and wish to find out the required skills; and
c) Individuals who wish to re-enter the workforce

6 Individuals who wish to use CareersFinder can do so via this link: https://careersfinder.mycareersfuture.gov.sg/. An introductory video to CareersFinder is available via: https://go.gov.sg/careersfinder