Government giving money to freelancers who upskill

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Because lifelong learning is also for freelancers, am I right?

If you are a writer like me, you probably are rejoicing after the Government announced that it will be extending help to freelancers and self-employed persons. As the workplace and job roles evolve, an increasing number of Singaporeans are choosing to join the gig economy instead of taking on a traditional job.

To help freelancers seize the opportunity to upskill during the “downtime” brought on by the Covid-19 situation, the Government is introducing the Self-Employed Persons (SEP) Training Support Scheme which will give all SEPs a training allowance of $7.50/hour to attend courses under SkillsFuture. This scheme will run over the next three months.

To put this into perspective, let me quote the example raised by Minister Josephine Teo:

“To illustrate, consider a 45-year-old freelance sports coach who, or media freelancer, who decides to brush up on business management skills by taking a series of courses covering areas such as digital marketing, and design thinking.

Together, there are six modular courses stretching over 90 hours or about 12 days.

With SSG’s enhanced 90 percent subsidy of the course fees for those aged 40 and above, this sports coach or media freelancer would only need to pay about S$400 for the course. By using his SkillsFuture Credit, he will not need to pay a single cent out of his pocket.

Furthermore, he will receive training allowance of S$675.

I personally think that this is a great opportunity to sign up for courses and stay competitive. Getting $7.50/hour to learn is decent considering that it’s the rate most part time jobs pay. I would encourage freelancers to not fall into the trap of lazing around when less jobs are available. As someone who has prior experience staying home for THREE MONTHS doing nothing, I can tell you that it’s not fun and really boring ☹ It would be beneficial and possibly even fun, to take on courses that complement your current skillsets that will help you stay relevant.

I have my eye on video editing, Photoshop and maybe even photography classes, keep your eyes peeled for new content after I attend the courses!

#timetohustle


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If you’d like to contribute your story to us, drop us an email at editors@sureboh.sg and we’ll review it. We read each submission that comes to us within two weeks of receiving it.

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