The COVID-19 outbreak has hit the tourism industry, retailers and businesses hard.
Simply put, fewer tourists due to the travel bans imposed by the government means less business. But it’s not just businesses and retailers that are affected.
The everyday Singaporeans are too, including freelancers and Self-Employed Persons (SEP).
Luckily, help is being rendered to them.
Self-Employed & Freelancers Can Earn $7.50/hr Allowance While Taking SkillsFuture Courses
Manpower Minister Josephine Teo announced during the committee of supply debates in Parliament that help will be rendered to freelancers and Self-Employed Persons (SEP).
This came after the taxi and private hire industry received a $77 million package by the Ministry of Transport and that SEPs in other occupations have also been negatively impacted.
But Teo said that it’s an opportunity to look on the bright side and take this period as an opportunity to upgrade their skills.
Newly Introduced SEP Training Support Scheme
This was in reference to the newly introduced SEP Training Support Scheme which will allow SEPs to be paid a training allowance of $7.50/hour to attend courses under the SkillsFuture Series and selected sector-specific training programmes over the next three months.
That’s more than the hourly rate at McDonald’s.
This would greatly help SEPs to supplement their income while also upgrading their skills for the future.
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How It Works:
One example in which the scheme can be utilised is explained in this scenario:
“To illustrate, consider a 45-year-old freelance sports coach who, or media freelancer, who decides to brush up on business management skills by taking a series of courses covering areas such as digital marketing, and design thinking.
Together, there are six modular courses stretching over 90 hours or about 12 days.
With SSG’s enhanced 90 per cent subsidy of the course fees for those aged 40 and above, this sports coach or media freelancer would only need to pay about S$400 for the course.
By using his SkillsFuture Credit, he will not need to pay a single cent out of his pocket. Furthermore, he will receive a training allowance of S$675.”
A whopping $36 million has been put aside to fund this new scheme. The best part is that there is no cap as to how much training SEPs can sign up for.
NTUC will be the one issuing the scheme and details regarding how to apply will be released soon.
