Recognising the challenges that SMEs may face in sending their employees for training, the Enhanced Training Support for SMEs (ETSS) offers additional support for SMEs, including:

1. Higher Course Fee Grant: SMEs enjoy SkillsFuture Funding of up to 90% of the course fees when they sponsor their employees to attend courses supported by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)

2. Enhanced Absentee Payroll (AP) Funding: SMEs may claim AP funding of 80% of basic hourly salary at a higher cap of $7.50 per hour, an increase over the normal cap of $4.50 per hour.

To be eligible for ETSS, an SME must be:

• Registered or incorporated in Singapore
• At least 30% local shareholding by Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents
• Employment size of not more than 200 (at group level) or with annual sales turnover (at group level) of not more than $100 million

Trainees who are Employer-sponsored:

1. Must be Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents.

2. Courses have to be fully paid for by the employer.

3. Trainee is not a full-time national serviceman.

You may refer to the definition of "Employer-Sponsored Trainee" in Appendix E of the terms here (PDF, 1082 KB).

Enhanced Training Support Package

The Enhanced Training Support Package (ETSP) is part of the whole-of-government support measures to help enterprises tide over the economic impact of COVID-19 and be better positioned for subsequent recovery. The ETSP is a time-limited scheme to cover course fee and absentee payroll funding for eligible SSG-supported courses starting before 1 July 2021.

Please refer to www.ssg.gov.sg/ETSP_EnhancedAP for more details.