WE APPLAUD the recent announcement of various initiatives by the Government to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) survive this crisis and save jobs. However, SMEs often experience significant frustration accessing such well-intended measures.

For example, the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur), intended to save jobs, was announced recently, and employers are encouraged to send their workers for training during this economic downturn. Our company is fully supportive of the Government's call. On Thursday morning at 8.30am, we checked the website of the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) on the Spur initiative but could not find any training programmes relevant to our business.

We then called the WDA. First, we were told that if our industry does not fall under any of the listed programmes, there are no programmes for our employees and we would have to follow the usual Skills Development Fund (SDF) channel. This surprised us as the government announcement gave the impression that Spur is for all companies.

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