Singapore Boosts Spending on Maritime Training
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) will inject another S$65 million (US$46.8 million) into the Maritime Cluster Fund-Manpower Development program (MCF-MD) to attract and groom local talent for the maritime sector.
This brings the funds invested under this program since 2007 to S$115 million. The additional funding will be used to introduce new initiatives as well as step up existing efforts.
“MPA is committed to building a strong core of local talent in the maritime industry, which offers diverse career opportunities for Singaporeans in both seafaring and shore-based jobs,” said Andrew Tan, chief executive of MPA.
“The enhancement to the MCF-MD program not only lends strong support to the national-level SkillsFuture initiative but also allows us to support more skills-based learning, upgrading, and re-skilling for those who want to switch careers. We will be announcing more initiatives on manpower development by the two taskforces in the coming months,” Tan said.
MPA has formed two taskforces to drive efforts in support of SkillsFuture - the Tripartite Maritime Manpower Taskforce for Seafaring and the Maritime Manpower Taskforce for Shore-based Sectors, in May and November 2014, respectively.
The Tripartite Maritime Manpower Taskforce for Seafaring develops measures to encourage Singaporeans to take up seafaring careers and improve retention of seafaring talent, through training grants and achievement awards.
To complement the efforts of the taskforce, MPA will set aside an additional S$6 million ($4.3 million) over the next five years to award up to 20 scholarships each year, double the number awarded in previous years. To date, more than 130 scholarships have been awarded.