Singapore air transport sector gets help to regroup, reskill amid Covid-19 outbreak

COMPANIES in Singapore's air transport sector will receive an enhanced training and support package to help defray business costs and protect workers' jobs amid the Covid-19 virus outbreak.

The package is expected to benefit more than 8,000 workers in the sector, by providing affected companies with funding support for workers' salaries and course fees to send their workers for retraining and reskilling, in preparation for business demand to return.

Unveiled on Monday, the initiative is part of the Stabilisation and Support Package announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat during Budget 2020. It was put together with the efforts of the nine unions in the NTUC Aerospace and Aviation Cluster, which had been working to identify needed areas of training in the sector prior to the outbreak, in partnership with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).

SSG's support will be in the form of enhanced absentee payroll support at 90 per cent of hourly basic salary capped at S$10 per hour, and enhanced course fee support at 90 per cent of course fees, up from a baseline rate of 50 per cent. Companies that send workers for selected sector-specific training programmes under SSG will be eligible for this funding.

WSG has rolled out a new Place-and-Train programme for air transport coordinators to prepare workers for newly created, redesigned and enhanced roles, and employers will receive up to six months of salary support under the package to reskill rank-and-file workers with such new or expanded competencies.

On top of this package, NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) will provide an additional S$500,000 to help unionised companies in the air transport sector send workers for training. e2i is prepared to extend further funding support if the utilisation rate of training increases.

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"The aviation industry has been significantly affected by Covid-19 and our partners are understandably very concerned about the impact on business and jobs," said CAAS director-general Kevin Shum.

"At the same time, there is an opportunity for the industry to upskill workers and be better prepared to benefit when recovery occurs. CAAS is working closely with key employers to understand the challenges they face."

Said Ong Hwee Liang, chairman of the NTUC Aerospace and Aviation Cluster: "Our aviation companies must take advantage of this training support so that they can manage excess manpower and be able to save jobs. We must also take advantage of this opportunity to deepen workers' skills. The measures in the support package will help to bolster these efforts."