Refresher training for food handlers to come under WDA's WSQ framework

SINGAPORE - A mandatory refresher training that all food handlers must undertake will now come under the Singapore Workforce Development Agency's (WDA) Food & Beverage Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) Framework.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said that food handlers will also be eligible for fee subsidies for courses delivered under the WSQ framework.

Lower-income Singaporeans who qualify for the Workfare Training Support (WTS) scheme will enjoy course fee subsidies of up to 95 per cent, with the lowest course fee being below $10.

Food handlers will now be required to attend their first refresher training five years after completing their Basic Food Hygiene Course (BFHC)1 and the subsequent ones at 10-year intervals, instead of the previous cycle of once every three years.

They will also have the flexibility to either go through the refresher training and assessment, or sit for the assessment without going through training if they are confident of passing the assessment without refresher training.

To meet the learning needs of food handlers with various literacy levels, pictorials have been included in theory assessment and multiple choice questions, while oral assessment is also available for food handlers with low literacy levels.

NEA will recognise the refresher training certificates awarded since October 2010.

All food handlers working in NEA-licensed premises are required to go through the mandatory refresher training at WDA's approved training organisations which conduct the Food & Beverage WSQ training, when the course starts running from October. Visit WDA's website for the latest list of approved training organisations.

ljessica@sph.com.sg