News

29^th December 2021

Dear Training Centres,

Updates and Reminders for all Accredited Training Centres (TCs)

Vaccination Differentiated Safe Management Measures (New)

1. SRFAC will be aligning with Singapore’s shift towards the Resilience Phase with Vaccination Differentiated Safe Management Measures which are being implemented for different premises and activities. By restricting entry to only individuals who have been fully vaccinated, we can further reduce the risk of transmission in such settings.
2. From 1^st January 2022, all enterprises are required to implement the Workforce Vaccination Measures (WVM). With WVM, only employees who are fully vaccinated or certified to be medically ineligible for all COVID-19 vaccines under the National Vaccination Programme or have recovered[i] from COVID-19 within the past 180 days, can return to the workplace to work onsite. All other unvaccinated employees, including partially unvaccinated employees, will not be able to return to work onsite. More details on the WVM can be found on https://www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/advisory-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-employment-settings.
3. From 1^st January 2022, SRFAC will also require all learners/trainees to be fully vaccinated or certified to be medically ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines or have recovered from COVID-19 within the past 180 days before they can come onsite for training. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals will not be allowed for onsite training. For more information, please visit https://www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19-phase-advisory and https://file.go.gov.sg/vdsmminfo.pdf.

Regular Workplace Testing (New)

1. MOH will open applications for a second round of free antigen rapid test (ART) kit distribution for workplaces not on mandatory rostered routine testing (RRT) to implement voluntary weekly testing for two months. This will facilitate early identification of cases and reduce workplace transmission as more return to their workplaces. with employees that work onsite and are not already subject to mandatory RRT may apply for 8 ART kits per onsite vaccinated employee for weekly testing over a two-month period, if they require the funding support. Applications will open from 3^rd to 31^st January 2022. More details will be made available at www.go.gov.sg/time-limited-rrt-art closer to date.

Accreditation Matters (Reminder)

1. TCs which have submitted their audit application should wait for confirmation from SRFAC that their submitted dates have been matched to Auditors before proceeding to make the bank transfer of the audit fee. Please buffer at least 4 weeks between the earliest submitted date from date of audit application.
2. Please reduce the file size of the training slides and relevant documents for audit submission:
   1. For PowerPoint, double-click on the picture.
   2. Under “Picture Format”, select “Compress Picture” at the tool bar and then select “Web” or “Email” setting if applicable.
   3. Repeat steps a and b for the required pictures as needed.
   4. Save PowerPoint slides as PDF.

Other Matters (Reminder)

1. There are no further changes to SRFAC’s recommended Safe Management Measures. However, workplaces that have more stringent measures/routines than the prescribed measures should follow their existing implementation:
   1. SafeEntry, use of Trace Together mobile application and/or token as well as health declaration.
   2. 1 meter distance between individuals, 2 meters between small groups (up to 4 learners) during practical hands-on and assessment.
   3. Provision of hand sanitisers and/or hand-washing points.
   4. Continue with twice-daily temperature-taking. Individuals who develop Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) symptoms during the course/workday must seek medical attention at the nearest Swab and Send Home (SASH) clinic.
   5. Disinfect/wash hands thoroughly before and after every hands-on practice.
   6. Manikins and re-useable training equipment (AED trainers, MDIs, BVMs, Auto-Injector trainers, etc) should be wiped down with disinfectant wipes after each use by a learner.
   7. For First Aid courses, sufficient amount of bandages should be issued to the learners for their individual use only and should not be collected by the TC to be re-used for the next batch of learners.
   8. Disinfect the training premise and common touch points at the end of each training day/session.
2. TCs that have yet to submit their risk mitigation plans are reminded to submit the plans to SRFAC for vetting and approval prior to resuming training (https://srfac.sg/news/). For avoidance of doubt, TCs which had submitted their risk mitigation plans to SRFAC and had such plans approved, need not re-submit for approval. Non-compliance of the safety measures and training guidance may result in termination of the TC’s accreditation. SRFAC will continue to conduct compliance checks and TCs are reminded to provide continuous updates on all confirmed/scheduled classes.

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[i] Non-fully vaccinated individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 infection prior to 1 January 2022 and who will already exceed the 180-day period as of 1 January 2022 would be granted an additional one month grace period till 31 January 2022 to complete their primary series vaccination regime, to continue to work onsite.