New proposals unveiled to boost employment outcomes for PWDs in Singapore

One recommendation includes enhancing employers' capabilities to implement inclusive hiring

BY Dexter Tilo 18 Sep 2024

A taskforce in Singapore is recommending the development of employers' capabilities to implement inclusive hiring practices as a measure to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

The Taskforce on Promoting Inclusive Employment Practices (TIE) unveiled the recommendation on Monday at the Enabling Academy Learning Festival 2024.

It recommended enhanced support to "build up employers' in-house capabilities to implement inclusive hiring practices."

This includes defraying part of the costs to do so and expanding the pool of inclusive hiring champions to advocate for inclusive hiring practices in target sectors such as Information and Communications, Health and Social Services, and Transport and Storage, according to TIE.

The other recommendations include enhancing support to:

Provide bridging efforts to curate and place job seekers in short-term assignments, or gig jobs. This will help to expand the number of job opportunities and improve access and support for job seekers with disabilities to return to the workforce.
Introduce a clear set of competencies to uplift the capabilities and professional standards of job coaches, who play an important role in supporting PWDs. In response, SG Enable has launched the Job Coach Career Map, as part of the ESCF, which outlines the skills and competencies as well as career progression pathways of job coaches.

These measures are expected to place an additional 4,500 PWDs into employment by 2030, in line with the employment target of the Enabling Masterplan 2030.

Enabling Masterplan 2030

The TIE is a taskforce established under the Enabling Masterplan 2030, which outlines the government's targets and goals for a "more caring and inclusive" Singapore in 2030.

Over the years, TIE has introduced the Open-Door Programme, Enabling Employment Credit, and Enabling Mark to support employers in inclusive hiring, as well as place PWDs into employment.

Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development and Culture, Community, and Youth, Guest-of-Honour at EALF, said the Ministry of Social and Family Development supports the new recommendations proposed by TIE.

"They support our efforts in building an even more caring and inclusive Singapore," Chua commented on the recommendations.

"As we work towards 2030, we will continue to do more, particularly in the post-18 space, and we need more in society to come on board this collective journey of disability inclusion."

The resident employment rate of PWDs aged 15 to 64 has been rising steadily over the past years, from 28.2% in 2018/2019 to 32.7% in 2022/2023.