Task force outlines plans to help more people with disabilities find jobs

Another 4,500 set to benefit by 2030, with efforts to raise employment rate to 40%

- Chin Soo Fang

An estimated 4,500 more people with disabilities (PWDs) in Singapore are expected to have jobs by 2030, as part of efforts to increase the employment rate of this group to 40 per cent.

A task force looking at ways to reach this goal announced its recommendations in a report on Sept 16, laying out plans to grow the pool of inclusive employers, expand employment opportunities for PWDs and better equip job coaches.

The Government aims to increase the number of inclusive employers from more than 7,000 today to 10,000 by 2030, of which 30 per cent, or 3,000, will hire more than one PWD each.

Currently, close to four in five inclusive employers hire only one PWD, and can scale up efforts to hire more of them, said the task force.

As of now, the pool of 7,000 employers hire around 16,000 PWDs.

The recommendations by the Taskforce on Promoting Inclusive Employment Practices also include tapping gig work as a stepping stone for PWDs to join the workforce, and better equipping job coaches.

Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development, shared the recommendations at the Enabling Academy Learning Festival at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Eunos.

The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) supports all the recommendations of the task force, formed in 2022 as part of the Enabling Masterplan 2030, which is Singapore's road map for supporting PWDs and enabling them to contribute to society.

The average resident employment rate of PWDs aged 15 to 64 has risen from 28.2 per cent in 2018/2019 to 32.7 per cent in 2022/ 2023.

The task force comprised 17 members from the people, private and public sectors.