WDA Programmes for University Graduates

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether there are plans for WDA programmes and initiatives to be extended to university graduates, in particular those who are unemployed; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider more grants and financial aid for older graduates looking to upskill themselves under the full sponsorship of professional conversion programmes.

Mdm Speaker, the Member asked whether the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) programmes and initiatives can be extended to university graduates. WDA programmes and initiatives are indeed already extended to university graduates, including fresh graduates. This includes providing employment facilitation and career services, including career advisory, job fairs and resources on job search. In fact, last year, of the jobseekers assisted by WDA and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), 17% of them hold a degree qualification.

The Member also asked whether the Ministry would consider more grants and financial aids to help the older graduates to upgrade or upskill under the full sponsorship of the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP).

Mdm Speaker, professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs), including degree holders, can have access programmes such as PCP, the Career Support Programme (CSP) and P-Max, to help them transit to new jobs, including in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In particular, older PMETs are already offered a higher level of career and employment support, as suggested by the Member.

For example, under PCP, companies which hire PMETs aged 40 and above will receive 90% wage support, or 20% more than those younger than age 40, up to a cap of $4,000 during the training and this is on top of existing training subsidies. At the same time, CSP is also specially designed for mid-career PMETs aged 40 and above. The Government pays between 10% and 40% of their first year's wages for mature PMETs deployed under CSP.

I thank the Minister for the answer. I have one supplementary question. With regard to PCP, which is across 11 industries or sectors, are there any plans to raise the cap of $4,000? Because we have increased numbers of PMETs who are older and, generally, their income will probably be higher and there will be increasing numbers of PMETs who are older who would be unemployed. Are there any plans to raise the cap of $4,000?

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for the suggestions. The Member is right that for many of the mature PMETs, their salary is likely to be more than $4,000. That is the reason why, besides PCP which has been around for a few years, in October, we also introduced CSP. Under CSP, we are able to provide wage support for salary ranges from $4,000 to $7,000. So, in short, mature PMETs can be supported under our programmes through a combination of both PCP and CSP.