SHE went for one interview after another but Madam Noraisah Ramali, then a housewife, was rejected by prospective employers time and again.

She had just O-level passes, they told her. Besides, she had no computer skills, couldn't speak Mandarin and had been out of the workforce for too long.

But things changed for the better one month ago when she went for an interview held jointly by the NTUC Women's Development Secretariat (WDS) and Singapore Post.

SingPost was looking for part-timers to sort letters at its mail centre.

Madam Noraisah, 46, got the job and can today look forward to earning about $400 a month.

She works four hours a day, six days a week, arranging letters by housing block in the Ubi district.

'It's good, quite an easy job,' she said.

The income helps pay for the expenses of her three children, all students, and supplements the just over $3,000 that her husband earns as an environment inspector.

Madam Noraisah is one of 1,250 women who found jobs this year through the NTUC's Back to Work Programme.

Revealing the figure at a National Day observance ceremony at Singapore Post yesterday, NTUC deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob was pleased, as the target for the year was to help 2,000 women do so.

But these women are not mere statistics, she noted.

'Many of these women were housewives and were returning to the workforce after many years of caring for the family,' she said.

Some need the extra money as their children are growing up and expenses have increased. Others do not have enough for their retirement and want to save up for it.

On their part, many of the women have made adjustments in their expectations and are prepared for skills upgrading, said Madam Halimah.

To help them, the WDS is adopting a 3Rs approach: Recruit, readjust and retain.

This involves organising recruitment drives and job fairs to increase employment opportunities.

The WDS will also work with partners such as community development councils to train these women so that they can readjust to working life.

And it will continue to promote a mentorship or buddy scheme to help retain these women in the workforce.

It will also encourage more companies to adopt flexi-work and other arrangements that improve work-life balance.

Madam Halimah also disclosed that the labour movement is collecting feedback on the marriage and parenthood package of measures that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced during the National Day Rally.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Aug 30, 2008.