'Strong HR leadership is critical to help employers manage and support their workforce,' minister says
The Singapore government will enhance funding support for basic HR certification to support human resources leadership amid global uncertainty for businesses.
"We will temporarily enhance funding support for basic HR certification for HR professionals," said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng at the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce press conference on Thursday.
"We will share more details on these programmes in due course."
Tan made the announcement as he underscored the importance of HR leadership in businesses in the wake of uncertainties.
"Strong HR leadership is critical to help employers manage and support their workforce amid the volatile environment," he said.
Singapore has a locally developed HR certification implemented by the Institute for Human Resource Professionals to recognise the experience, skills, and competencies of HR professionals in Singapore.
According to Workforce Singapore, its purpose is to strengthen the HR standards of excellence in the country and offer a formal professionalisation of the HR function.
The temporary funding support for basic HR certification is just one of the government's steps to help businesses amid uncertainty from US President Donald Trump's widespread tariffs.
Trump sent this week letters to 14 countries outlining new tariff rates that go as high as 40% for countries such as Laos and Myanmar.
Singapore is not part of this list, but it will still be subject to a baseline 10% tariff.
To help businesses, the country's Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce said it will extend business grants of up to S$100,000 per company starting October.
"Businesses who export to and/or have operations in overseas markets, and are impacted by the tariffs, will be able to tap on this Business Adaptation Grant to assess the tariff impact and obtain advisory on supply chain optimisation," Tan said.
"Businesses with local or overseas manufacturing operations will also receive support for their reconfiguration needs, which include logistics and inventory holding costs."
Meanwhile, Tan assured that Singapore's labour market has remained resilient, with 1.64 vacancies per unemployed person as of March 2025.
He also noted that the proportion of firms seeking to hire or raise wages in the next three months had also gone up from the pre-tariff period in April and May 2025.
"While there will be uncertainty ahead, I should emphasise that currently we are not in a crisis, nor are we in a recession," Tan said. "The labour market has generally remained resilient."
