New initiative to support training and work opportunities in HR for people with disabilities

There will be a new initiative to provide training and create new career opportunities for people with disabilities (PWD) to work in human resource services, starting from the first quarter of 2022. "SG Enable", an agency that helps PWD, will support up to 30 training and job opportunities by partnering with Alibaba Cloud and Microsoft Singapore. This initiative will be under the new HR Power Bank initiative by Human Capital Singapore (HCS), liaising with SMEs to provide opportunities as human resource administrators for PWDs.

So far, 148 companies have signed the President's Challenge Enabling Employment Pledge to endorse their commitment to inclusive hiring. Organisations who endorsed this pledge would foster barrier-free workplace environments, adopt an inclusive mindset and apply policies for workers with disabilities. According to figures released in April this year by the Ministry of Manpower(MOM), more than 29 percent of PWDs aged 15 to 64 are employed.

More sectors and organisations are open to hiring PWDs

MOM also announced in July that the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) had supported the hiring of more than 1600 individuals with disabilities. JGI provides wage support of 50 percent to all new local PWDs hired by JGI-eligible employers.

While more companies are increasingly open to hiring PWDs, part of the problem is that most firms are not aware of how to hire, train or include them as part of their workforce. For example, there used to be a stereotype that PWDs should be placed in F&B, retail, or hospitality. However, according to the CEO of SPD, employers from various sectors (security, IT, logistics, urban farming, cleaning, and healthcare) have requested workers with disabilities to work in their companies. This trend shows an encouraging trend of shifting in mindset. Employers are also eligible for wage offset for each PWD hire, earning below $4000 per month since the start of 2021.

The Enabling Employment Credit (EEC) replaces subsidies under the special employment credit (SEC), covering senior staff and PWDs. The first payout under this scheme was in September this year. Last year, approximately 6100 employers received offsets for hiring more than 9200 Singaporeans with disabilities, a large increase from 2012. In addition, the SEC was paid to 3200 employers hiring 5000 PWDs.

What do you think of the new initiative? Would you consider hiring PWDs as part of your workforce? Why/Why not?