Full Time Maid   Foreign Workers  

 

So the mandatory English entry test for maids will be scrapped.

It will be cheaper to hire a maid then, right?

After all, the maid agencies had previously argued they needed to raise fees because maids had to be trained to pass the test.

But the bad news is prospective employers are not going to enjoy any cost savings.

Instead, it might be even more expensive to hire a maid.

Maid agencies The New Paper spoke to said the English test will be replaced by a programme that is expected to cost more.

The new mandatory Settling-In Programme (SIP) will be introduced by the middle of next year, Minister of State for Manpower and National Development Tan Chuan-Jin said on Sunday.

SIP is designed to help domestic workers cope better with living and working here.

The actual cost of SIP is still unknown but employment agencies expect it to run over a few days and cost more than $100 for each new domestic worker, significantly more than the entry test fee of $7 a test.

The new programme will include the current four-hour Safety Awareness Course, which costs $28 a maid, and teaches maids how to carry out chores safely and the avenues for help.

Employment agencies said maids will take the SIP here.

For the English entry tests, the maids take the language classes in their home country to keep costs low but they take the test here.

Then there's the cost of housing and feeding the maids for the few days that the programme is expected to run.

Employers would have to bear the additional costs associated with the SIP, argued the employment agencies.

But the employer will get better value for money, said Mr Desmond Chin, group director of Nation Employment.

He told The New Paper: "For employers, the SIP is better because it directly benefits them. The entry test does not and it's also not a good gauge of the maid's English skills.

By ---> [AsiaOne]

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