The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) have launched on 13 December 2022 a scheme which allows qualifying firms to temporarily hire S Pass and Work Permit holders above the prevailing dependency ratio ceiling.
MOM and MTI said the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities (M-SEP) scheme was designed for firms which are needle-movers for Singapore’s strategic economic priorities.
Eligible firms can obtain additional S Pass and Work Permit quotas of up to five per cent above their base workforce headcount, subject to a cap of 50 workers per firm.
The flexibilities under the M-SEP scheme will last for two years upon enrolment and may be renewed subject to meeting renewal conditions.
To qualify, firms must also commit to employing or training locals.
MOM and MTI said the M-SEP scheme would help these firms seize opportunities to grow in Singapore while securing jobs and training opportunities for Singaporeans.
The scheme was first announced by Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng on 4 March 2022 during his MOM Committee of Supply 2022 speech.
To qualify for the M-SEP scheme, firms must participate in at least one programme by an economic agency that is in line with one of Singapore’s key economic priorities.
The priorities include investments that support Singapore’s hub strategy, innovation or research and development, and internationalisation.
There are 14 such programmes outlined by MOM and MTI, including the Pioneer Certificate Incentive recipients by the Economic Development Board, Scale-Up SG by Enterprise Singapore and selected participants of the Singapore Tourism Accelerator by the Singapore Tourism Board.
MOM and MTI said only about 1,000 firms currently meet this requirement, which is less than one per cent of all registered business entities in Singapore.
Even if they meet the requirement, the ministries said: “Not all of them will require additional S Pass and Work Permit quotas, as they would be able to source for workers locally. Even among those with the need, not all of them can access the maximum flexibility.”
Firms must also commit to increasing their net hiring of locals, training their local workforce which results in job enhancement, or be an industry leader with training excellence.
For the training of workforce, firms can send local workers to one of the whitelisted training programmes such as SkillsFuture Singapore’s work-study programmes, Workforce Singapore’s Capability Transfer Programme and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s Global Talent Programme.
These training programmes require companies to demonstrate sufficient effort in directly training local workers, such as structured on-the-job training, assigning dedicated mentors or job enhancements.
Job enhancements could also include promotion with wage increments, expanded job scope or higher-level responsibilities.
Trainees can either be new entrants into the company or existing workers.
