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).

Further Info: This scheme is intended for all organisations, including non-business entities not registered with ACRA e.g. VWOs, societies, etc. Only Ministries, statutory boards, and other government agencies are not eligible under Enhanced Training Support for SMEs Scheme. Sole proprietorships which meet all of the above criteria are also eligible.

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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 Jan 2022.

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