Career conversion programme in Singapore: who qualifies, what it pays and how to switch

"Can I switch careers without starting from zero?" That's what a career conversion programme, or CCP, is for. A company hires you into a new field and trains you on the job, usually for 3 to 6 months. While you learn, the government pays it up to 70% of your salary, or up to 90% if you're 40 or older. That money goes to your employer, though, so your own pay is whatever the new job offers. Here's who qualifies, how the three types work, and how to work out the pay cut before you jump.

What is a career conversion programme?

It's a way into a new job where the training happens at work. CCPs help mid-career people move into growth jobs, either as a new hire or with their current employer, through structured on-the-job training.

The Skills and Workforce Development Agency, or SWDA, runs them. It was formed on 1 July 2026, when SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore merged. Older guides that mention Workforce Singapore mean the same programmes.

There are CCPs in around 30 sectors, including healthcare, infocomm technology, manufacturing, and early childhood care and education. Close to 44,000 workers were placed through them from 2020 to 2025.

A CCP usually lasts 3 to 6 months. The programme and the job set the exact length. Our SkillsFuture guide covers the wider set of training schemes it sits in.

Who can join a career conversion programme?

In most cases, citizens and PRs who left school or NS a while ago. You need to tick all three of these:

If you're joining a new company, the CCP job has to be substantially different from your last one. Staying with your employer? Then the new role has to be a growth job in the Jobs Transformation Maps. Those are the government's plans for how each industry's jobs are changing.

Can you move into a job like your old one? Only if you've had an unbroken gap of at least 2 years without work before the CCP starts. NS doesn't count towards that gap. You'd show it with a declaration, your resume and your CPF contribution statements.

Each CCP can add its own entry rules, and the employer still picks who it hires. Fresh graduates can't join. You also can't do a CCP at a company you hold shares in (listed shares aside) or one you've just left. The same goes for a firm where you're related to the owners or to anyone deciding the application.

You're a Singapore Citizen or PR.
You're at least 21.
You graduated or finished NS at least 2 years ago, counted from your latest qualification or the end of NS, whichever is later.

Which of the three types gives you a job on day one?

Place-and-Train does. A company hires you first, then trains you on the job for the new role.

With Attach-and-Train, a host company gives you training and a work attachment, but you don't have a job at the start. Hosts are strongly encouraged to hire trainees who do well, but they don't have to.

Job Redesign Reskilling is for people who stay put. Your current employer retrains you for a growth role in the Jobs Transformation Maps.

You may see "Redeployment" in older guides. It isn't one of the three types SWDA lists now.

The three types of career conversion programme
Type	Do you have a job at the start?	Who gets the support?
Place-and-Train	Yes, a new employer hires you	Your employer
Attach-and-Train	No, you're on an attachment	You, as a training allowance
Job Redesign Reskilling	Yes, your current job	Your employer

How much salary support is there?

Up to 90% of your monthly salary. Your age and how long you've been out of work set the rate. On Place-and-Train and Job Redesign Reskilling, SWDA pays it to your employer for the training months, and your employer pays the rest of your salary.

If your salary is above the cap, S$5,000 or S$7,500 a month depending on the rate, your employer still gets support up to the cap.

Attach-and-Train works differently. SWDA pays you a training allowance directly, up to S$5,000 a month. It's worth 50% to 70% of the usual salary for the job you're training for. The host company adds at least another 10%.

Some CCPs also include a structured course. For those, the course fees get a 70% subsidy, with a 20% top-up for mature citizens. On Place-and-Train and Job Redesign Reskilling, staff sent by a small or medium firm can get the top-up too.

CCP salary support for Place-and-Train and Job Redesign Reskilling
Rate	Who it's for	Support	Cap a month
Standard	Citizens and PRs under 40	Up to 70% of salary	S$5,000
Enhanced	Citizens and PRs 40 and above, or out of work and job hunting for 6 months or more	Up to 90% of salary	S$7,500

The catch: does the salary support go into your pocket?

Not on Place-and-Train. Your pay is the salary in your contract, and the support pays part of what that salary costs your employer.

Say you're 42, and a new employer offers you S$4,000 a month on a six-month CCP. Here's how it works out:

That's why a CCP can open doors. An employer that would hesitate to train someone with no experience gets most of your first months' pay covered. Your contract still has to be permanent or last at least a year, at market-rate pay.

Your salary is S$4,000 a month, the same as any other hire on that pay.
At 42, you qualify for the enhanced rate, so your employer can get up to 90%, which is S$3,600 a month.
Over six months, that's up to S$21,600 to your employer.
If you were 35 instead, the standard 70% rate would mean up to S$2,800 a month.

Bea counts a small stack of notes — Me, realising the S$21,600 goes to my boss, not me

Quick maths: how long until a lower salary catches up?

Switching fields often means a lower starting salary. So before you sign, work out what that gap costs you and how long it lasts.

Say you earn S$5,000 a month now and the CCP job pays S$4,000. Here's the sum:

The raises are guesses you set yourself, so try a few. Our career switch pay cut calculator runs this with your own numbers. It also shows your take-home pay after CPF and tax, and the CCP support your employer can get.

The gap is S$1,000 a month, or S$12,000 in your first year, before CPF.
Suppose your old job would have raised your pay 3% a year, and the new field 8% a year.
At those rates, your new salary catches up with your old path in about 4.7 years.
If the new field only raised pay 3% a year too, it would never catch up.

How do you apply for a CCP?

Through a job posting, if you're changing employers. If you're staying, your employer sends you on Job Redesign Reskilling instead. CCP jobs are listed on MyCareersFuture, and the posting names the CCP it comes with. Our guide to job search websites in Singapore covers the other places to look.

Here's the order things happen in:

Since April 2025, a Place-and-Train or Job Redesign Reskilling job can also be flexi-load. That means varied workloads or fewer hours, as long as the role is permanent or on a contract of at least a year.

Find a posting on MyCareersFuture that names a CCP, and apply like you would for any job.
If the company hires you, it applies for the CCP.
On Place-and-Train, the CCP has to be approved within 3 months of your start date.
Resign from your current job only after your place is confirmed and you've signed the contract.

What else can you claim if you're 40 or older?

Two more schemes, both for Singapore Citizens. They help if you'd rather study first and then switch.

The SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme gives every citizen S$4,000 of SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career) on turning 40, and it doesn't expire. It pays for selected courses, such as full qualifications at the polytechnics, ITE and universities, SkillsFuture Career Transition Programmes and Progressive Wage Model courses. From 1 December 2026, new runs of WSQ full qualifications count too.

On top of that, the Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy covers up to 90% of course fees for these learners. From Academic Year 2025, that includes a full-time diploma at ITE, a polytechnic, NAFA or LASALLE.

The SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance pays you while you study on selected full-time courses. You get half of your average monthly income over the 12 months before the course. The floor is S$300 a month and the cap is S$3,000. Part-time learners who keep working get S$300 a month. You can claim it for 24 months in your lifetime.

Averaged S$4,000 a month? A full-time course pays you S$2,000 a month.
Averaged S$7,000 a month? Half is S$3,500, so you get the S$3,000 cap.
No income in the past 12 months? You can't get the allowance.

What if you've lost your job before you switch?

SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support can tide you over while you look. It pays up to S$6,000 over 6 months if you lost your job through no choice of your own. That covers a retrenchment, a business closing down, or being let go because of illness or injury.

You'll need to meet all of these:

The payouts shrink over time. You get up to S$1,500 in month 1, S$1,250 in month 2, S$1,000 in month 3 and S$750 a month after that. Each one is capped at what you used to earn a month, and you earn it by hitting a monthly target of job search activities. Our guide on how long it takes to find a job after retrenchment covers the search itself.

You're a citizen or PR aged 21 or above.
In the past 12 months, you worked in Singapore for at least 6 months and earned S$5,000 a month or less in gross pay on average while working.
Your home's annual value is S$31,000 or less.
You haven't had a payout from the scheme in the past 3 years.

The MoneyBees take: what we'd check first

We'd work out the pay cut before looking at the support. On Place-and-Train, the support goes to your employer, so your pay is whatever the new job offers.

In our example, that's S$12,000 less in the first year, in return for a new field and a contract of at least a year.

What settles it is how many months of the lower pay your savings can carry before the new salary catches up.

Before you go

This week, put your current pay and the new offer into the career switch calculator. Then search MyCareersFuture for postings that name a CCP in the field you want.

Frequently asked questions

Is the career conversion programme only for people over 40?

No. Citizens and PRs under 40 can join at the standard rate, where the employer gets up to 70% of the salary. The enhanced 90% rate is for those 40 and above, or anyone out of work and job hunting for 6 months or more.

Does the CCP salary support go to me or my employer?

On Place-and-Train and Job Redesign Reskilling, it goes to your employer, and you get the salary in your contract. On Attach-and-Train, SWDA pays you a training allowance directly, up to S$5,000 a month.

Can fresh graduates join a career conversion programme?

No. You need to have graduated or finished National Service at least 2 years ago, counted from whichever is later. CCPs are meant for mid-career people moving into a new field.

How long does a career conversion programme last?

Usually 3 to 6 months, and the programme and the job set the exact length. On Place-and-Train, the job itself is permanent or on a contract of at least a year, so the CCP is only the training part.

Can I do a CCP in a job similar to my old one?

Only if you've had an unbroken gap of at least 2 years without work before the CCP starts. Otherwise, a new hire's CCP job has to be substantially different from their last one. NS doesn't count towards the gap.

What happened to Workforce Singapore's career conversion programmes?

They carried on under the Skills and Workforce Development Agency, or SWDA. It was formed on 1 July 2026, when SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore merged into one agency.

Sources

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This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change, so verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.

Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).