Amounts Allocated to Enhance Employment and Employability for Youths with Special Needs

58 Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how much was allocated in 2020 and 2021 to enhance employment and employability for youths with special needs; (b) what are the outcomes of the expenditure and its schemes; and (c) whether there are further plans to enhance employment and employability of youths and adults with special needs and, if so, what are these.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: In the schooling years, the curriculum and customised programmes in Special Education (SPED) schools and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) help to prepare students with special needs for employment. MOE closely partners SPED schools to provide a Vocational Education Curriculum that is kept relevant and is supported by dedicated training facilities and staff such as school-based job coaches who support students to develop skills through work experience in authentic workplaces and internships.

For work-capable students with more complex needs, the School-To-Work (S2W) Transition Programme provides customised training pathways and internship opportunities to help work-capable SPED graduates transit into employment. Youths with disabilities in IHLs also have access to internship and mentorship opportunities through the IHL Internship and RISE Mentorship Programme. The former allows participants to acquire first-hand workplace experiences, relevant industry knowledge and skills, while participants of the latter learn from their mentors and receive guidance on how to prepare for future employment.

In FY2020 and FY2021, a total budget of around $4.2 million was allocated to the S2W Transition, IHL Internship and RISE Mentorship programmes. In total, about 160 youths and students with disabilities benefited from these three programmes in FY2020. Figures for FY2021 are not yet available.

Apart from these schemes which are targeted at youths in schools, SG Enable works with various partners to support the employability and employment of all persons with disabilities. Between 2014 and 2020, under the Open Door Programme (ODP), more than 2,500 persons with disabilities received employment-related training and over 3,000 were placed into new jobs, through job placement and job support services.

Employers will also receive wage support through the Enabling Employment Credit (EEC). The EEC provides 20% wage support for employees with disabilities earning below $4,000 per month, capped at $400. Employers who hire persons with disabilities who had been out of the labour force for more than six months will receive an additional 10% wage subsidy for the first six months. Since the EEC was introduced in 2021, it has benefited more than 5,200 employers who collectively employed more than 8,600 Singaporeans with disabilities.

In response to the impact of the pandemic on the economy, MOM introduced the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) to expand local hiring. The JGI has supported employers to hire more than 2,400 persons with disabilities between September 2020 to May 2021. In September 2021, MOM announced that the JGI will be extended to March 2022. Employers who hire persons with disabilities between October 2021 and March 2022 will receive up to $36,000 in wage support.

We recognise that more can be done to support persons with disabilities to find gainful employment. Last year, the Third Enabling Masterplan’s Workgroup on Preparing Persons with Disabilities for the Future Economy released 10 recommendations centred on three themes – improving capabilities at all life stages, creating and sustaining new work opportunities and recognising and incentivising employers to hire persons with disabilities.

MSF has been working with its partners to implement the recommendations. Over the past year, we extended the S2W Transition Programme from one to two years to provide students with more support as they transition into employment. The Enabling Mark was also launched to benchmark and recognise organisations for their best practices and outcomes in disability-inclusive employment. Three new programmes under the National Jobs Council – Place-and-Train, Attach-and-Train, and Skills Development Programme – were also introduced to provide customised employment, traineeships and skills upgrading opportunities to support persons with disabilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further initiatives will be implemented progressively over the next few years. The Government will also continue its efforts to support the employment of persons with disabilities in the next Enabling Masterplan 2030, where we will strengthen partnerships across sectors and involve persons with disabilities in co-creating solutions in a range of areas, including employment.