Wage reliefs boost job prospects of older PMETs

After getting retrenched in April last year, Mr Kuan Mun Fai, 52, went for networking sessions and basic skills upgrading courses as he looked for jobs.

In a two-hour class on Microsoft Excel that he attended, he found that the 2010 version of the software he had learnt is vastly different from the newest 2016 version.

“I think many older workers are used to doing things in the same way because they have stayed in the same company for many years,” he said, noting the need for mature professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) like himself to go for courses to keep their skills up to date.

After a seven-month job search, Mr Kuan, a father of two, landed a position as a business development director at Krislite, a local firm distributing industrial light products. The Career Support Programme (CSP), which provides wage subsidies to employers who hire certain groups of mature PMETs, helped him get the job, said Mr Kuan.

Launched in October last year, the CSP pays for part of the wages of PMETs above age 40 who have been out of work for at least six months, provided the salary offer is at least S$4,000. So far, more than 90 PMETs have been placed in jobs through this programme. Yesterday, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say announced that the programme will be expanded.

Mr Kuan, who previously worked at Philips for over two decades, believes that wage reliefs help employers get over their reservations about hiring older workers — especially so for small and medium enterprises that run on a tighter budget.

But he added that mature workers will need to help themselves too. “Keep an open mind and don’t tell yourself that you can’t do this or that ... Once you try, you might just find yourself being used to a new job,” said Mr Kuan. NG JING YNG