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Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms K Thanaletchimi
Nominated MP
Question No. 1085
To ask the Minister for Health how pervasive is the Adapt and Grow initiative, which helps workers to upgrade skills and adapt to changing job demands, in the healthcare sector.
Oral Answer
1 Madam, in 2016, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) implemented the “Adapt and Grow” initiative to support workers, especially mid-career Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs), in finding jobs.
2 Some 300 job seekers were placed into the healthcare sector through this initiative last year. Complementing this Adapt and Grow initiative, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) has also been organising recruitment fairs, through which about 400 mid-career locals were hired in 2016.
3 The Ministry of Health (MOH) will enhance the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) to recruit more mid-career Singaporeans as nurses. We will increase funding support for employers of mid-career nurses for their professional conversion training and on-the-job training. In addition, we will offer overseas nursing masters scholarships starting from 2017 for non-nursing degree graduates to pursue nursing studies.
4 Healthcare employers can also tap on the Workforce Singapore (WSG)'s PCP for Professional Executives to recruit mid-career administrators. In addition, those with managerial experience and are planning to switch to the community care sector can be placed on the Senior Management Associate Scheme (SMAS) and undergo training provided by AIC and the employers. MOH will also enhance its place and train programmes to recruit mid-career individuals into support care staff positions. On-the-job training funding support will be provided to public healthcare and community care employers for every newly hired support care worker.
5 We will continue to work closely with our partners such as the Ministry of Manpower, Workforce Singapore, Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), healthcare employers, as well as the union to reach out to mid-career job seekers, and facilitate their shift to the healthcare sector.