By Felda Chay

WHEN the recession hit and unemployment was set to rise, Spring Singapore sprang into action by pushing out the Professional Skills Programme Traineeships (PSPT) scheme in May to help fresh graduates and retrenched professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) find trainee and advisory positions with small and medium enterprises here.

Since then, the scheme has helped to place 270 of them in SMEs that have been chosen for their high growth and aggressive expansion plans, with many of them registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20-30 per cent, said Spring yesterday. Of the 270, 210 were fresh graduates, who were placed under Spring's executive training programme (ETP) where they were put in trainee positions at SMEs.

About 230 SMEs have put up more than 800 trainee positions under the ETP. More of these positions will be filled as Spring continues its selection and placement process, said Spring.

The ETP - launched in partnership with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) - puts fresh graduates on 12-month internships, where the trainees are required to attend a classroom-based foundational training programme that will equip them with skills to work in the SMEs. They are given a monthly allowance of between $2,000 and $2,500 a month, which is substantially co-funded by Spring.

The 60 PMETs were placed under the Business Advisors Programme (BAP), which was undertaken in partnership with NUS and SMU. Under the programme, the PMETs are attached as business advisers to SMEs to work on areas such as strategic planning, financial management and market expansion. The SMEs may choose to employ these advisers on a more permanent basis after their stint.

According to Spring, some 60 SMEs have benefited from the programme, with another 80 in the pipeline.

Spring chief executive Png Cheong Boon said that a common problem faced by SMEs is the competition with 'brand-name companies for talent across all levels'.

'Many job seekers have the impression that SMEs in Singapore are family-owned, highly traditional, stagnating, pay low salary, provide limited professional development or career progression, and do not look good on one's resume,' said Mr Png. 'While this perception of SMEs may be true for many, it's definitely not so for the promising, high-growth companies.'

Fresh graduates from NUS, NTU and SMU who are interested in the ETP can approach their respective career centres to sign up, while SMEs may call the EnterpriseOne hotline at 6898-1800 for queries on both programmes.

This article was first published in The Business Times.