Singapore’s Ministry of Health will invest SGD 24 million (USD 16.9 million) in order to attract more mid-career Singaporeans to switch to the healthcare sector. The Ministry states that about 9,000 more healthcare staff will be needed until 2020.

Among the 9,000 staff that’s needed, about half are Professional, Manager, Executive and Technician (PMET) level roles such as nurses, therapists, administrative executives and operations managers.

"The Ministry of Health will invest an additional SGD 24 million (USD 16.9 million) over the next three years to enhance our healthcare conversion and training programmes, to enable more mid-career Singaporeans to take up new careers in the sector," Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor said during a debate in Parliament.

The Ministry and Workforce Singapore have also established Professional Conversion Programmes for mid-career Singaporeans to be trained as Registered and Enrolled Nurses, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Diagnostic Radiographers. Under these programmes for nursing, employers will co-fund 10% of the training cost, down from the 20% to 50% currently.

The Ministry will also provide new on-the-job training support of SGD 12,000 (USD 8,459) to employers for every mid-career enrolled nurse and SGD 16,000 (USD 11,280) for every mid-career registered nurse. The funding is expected to encourage employers to admit more of the programme-trained nurses and enable them to better support these nurses in their transition to a new career.

The Ministry will also introduce a new overseas nursing scholarship for non-nursing degree graduates, including fresh graduates and those with prior work experience. According to Khor, there will also be more jobs in the aged care sector.