Labour Movement draws 32 hotels to go on SPUR training
1 June 2009
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE
1 An NTUC-affiliated union has joined forces with an NTUC Social Enterprise to Upturn the Downturn in the hotel industry. Together they will provide a one-stop training co-ordination role for the majority of training providers and the hotels in the sector.
2 The Food, Drinks and Allied Workers’ Union (FDAWU) and the NTUC LearningHub (LHUB) have come together to address the training needs of the hotels during this economic downturn and will tie-up with other Continuing Education and Training (CET) centres to provide a holistic and comprehensive training solution for the hotel industry. This initiative will tap on the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) programme and so far, 32 hotels have participated in this initiative.
3 The aim of this initiative, which is also supported by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Singapore Hotel Association (SHA) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), is to train staff of all levels in the hotels and this will be done in two phases: Phase 1 focuses on Generic Skills and Employability Training, and Phase 2 on Vocational Skills and PMET courses. This initiative sees 110 training courses on offer from Generic to Vocational skills, and not just service-related ones.
4 In Phase 1 which started in April 2009, workers were trained on Generic Skills under SPUR. They were trained on the Employability Skills System (ESS), Certified Service Professional (CSP), and teamwork courses. 1,041 out of the 1,685 training places were committed with LHUB and so far, 550 workers have been trained on Generic Skills.
5 Amongst the hotels which responded quickly to sending their workers for training included Raffles Hotel, Pan Pacific, Copthorne King, Copthorne Orchid and Hilton. “NTUC LearningHub went the extra mile in coordinating and customising training schedules to meet our requirement for SPUR training at our Hotel while accommodating specific date requests.” Ms Jennifer Tan, Director of Human Resources, Raffles Hotel.
6 At the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing event today, representatives from 32 hotels and nine2 approved CET centres affirmed their commitment to SPUR training. NTUC Deputy Secretary-General and FDAWU Executive Secretary Heng Chee How was the Guest-of-Honour with NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say as special guest. During the event, guests were also invited to view a sample of the CSP training, and Sheraton’s Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant3 culinary training.
7 Phase 2 of training is expected to commence in June 2009, and will involve the PMET (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) workers in areas of HR Management, Leadership, General Management, Financial Services & Risk Management, Retail Management, Costing & Purchasing, Communication & Interpersonal skills.
8 LHUB CEO Zee Yoong Kang said, “Over the last few months, FDAWU and LHUB have been receiving feedback from hotels that they are unable to fully tap the training opportunities available under SPUR due to capacity constraints. Also, the wide array of SPUR training providers offering a huge number of courses can be bewildering and difficult to manage for hotel HR departments, who need to deal with multiple providers to meet their training needs.
9 “From the perspective of SPUR providers, many of them are focused on training provision and lack a large sales and marketing capability. SPUR providers find it hard to effectively reach out to all employers that need their services.
10 “This new FDAWU-led platform creates a platform to consolidate demand and supply for SPUR training. LHUB has assembled a team of like-minded SPUR providers to give a complete training solution to the hotels. We offer the widest possible range of courses, and will put in place the necessary capacity, to meet all the needs of the hotels. LHUB will coordinate training requests from hotels and pass them through to our partners to serve our customers in a seamless way.”
11 In fact, LHUB is already working with participating hotels to identify key training areas and customise training content to meet their operational needs. It will co-ordinate all training schedule and disseminate information on a regular basis. And once the training is underway, it will continue to liaise with the hotels and gather feedback for service/training improvement.
12 FDAWU General Secretary Tan Hock Soon said, “These hotels have the benefit of learning from the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) experience when tourist arrivals were low and there was a problem of overcapacity. So similarly in this economic crisis, key management and staff know better how to deal with such crisis. Almost immediately, the management and the union called up each other to meet and discuss the various approaches to handle the downturn; one of which is taking the opportunity to train and to upskill the workforce. They readily agreed to contribute their training numbers to a pool so that classes can be formed immediately. NTUC LearningHub helped our hotels to identify the hospitality-related courses, consolidate the training schedules and it became the one-stop service centre for the hotels. These hotels can now focus on strategising to upskill their workforce and focus on proprietary training programmes.”
13 LHUB’s value to the hotels is to identify their training needs, provide them with updated information on the relevant training courses; schedules and course fees, customising training needs to meet hotel’s operational requirements, then liaise on their behalf to training providers to form classes. Obtaining such information from all the training providers is something that many HR personnel have time constraint in doing.
14 LHUB’s value to the participating training providers is providing the sales outreach to promote their courses to the hotels, and compile the hotel trainees for them to attend courses on their specified dates.
15 Together FDAWU and LHUB believe launching this initiative will go a long way to helping the hotel industry cope in this downturn and help participating hotels to stay the course, and all together to minimise retrenchments, minimise unemployment and upgrade the competitiveness of companies and the employability of workers.
Annex A
Phase I
