Sectoral Manpower Plan For Hotel Industry

By Shukry Rashid

The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced on 9 October 2015 a Sectoral Manpower Plan (SMP) to develop a skilled and productive workforce to support the growing hotel industry in Singapore.

The SMP is a five-year plan to sustain the workforce as the hotel industry is expected to face increasing challenges. These include a slower workforce growth, and mismatched aspirations between job seekers and hotel jobs.

NTUC’s Hospitality and Consumer Business Cluster Chairman Tan Hock Soon said that the Hotel SMP is a result of a consulted and coordinated effort by the various stakeholders in the industry to proactively develop workers.

Mr Tan is a member of the Sectoral Tripartite Committee for the hospitality sector.

Mr Tan, who is also General Secretary of the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU), added that NTUC’s role in the Hotel SMP is to contribute inputs to mobilise the industry’s workforce as it seeks to better understand the workers’ career aspirations “so that the policies can be aligned and to get their feedback for productivity improvements”.

Here is the SMP at a glance:

Enhanced Internships

Educational institutions will work closely with hotels to enhance ITE and polytechnic students’ internship experience.

• Republic Polytechnic has been appointed the designated Sector Coordinator for hotel operations and management, and will work closely with other educational institutions to enhance the current internship model.
• Some enhancements include: 

- Baseline allowance of $600 a month.

- Structured training plan with clear learning outcome.

- Assigned mentors to provide guidance to interns.

- Rotation of at least two departments per internship period to maximise exposure.

SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme

• Provides fresh hospitality graduates from ITE and polytechnics with a headstart in their careers and build on the skills and knowledge acquired at school.
• Republic Polytechnic – appointed Programme Manager for hotel industry – together with WDA, STB and other educational institutions will collaborate to roll out this programme in 2016.
• ITE students will be able to participate in 2016/2017.

SkillsFuture Leadership Development Initiative

• To groom the next generation of leaders by helping Singaporeans to develop capabilities needed for leadership roles.
• Potential leaders will benefit from the holistic development opportunities in areas such as business management, local and global exposure to core business functions, and also soft skills development.
• The initiative will also support HR function as a critical enabler of leadership development. Hotels will be equipped with HR capabilities to better manage and develop their pipeline of future leaders.

SkillsFuture Study Awards

• Support Singaporean individuals, especially in early to mid-stages of their careers, to develop and deepen their specialist skills to be more relevant and future ready.
• Recipients will receive a monetary award of up to $5,000 to defray cost of work-related education and training.

Galvanising Interest in Hotel Careers

• A holistic and inclusive career strategy will be developed and implemented in partnership with the industry and unions to position the hotel industry as an attractive career choice.
• Hotels need to adopt progressive HR practices to attract and retain the right talent. This must be supported by a sustained communication strategy to better communicate the fulfilment one can gain from a hotel career as well as opportunities available for skills mastery.
• The Singapore Skills Framework for the hotel industry will be developed and rolled out in the first half of 2016. This framework will provide information to benefit individuals to make informed career choices, such as industry’s sector and employment outlook, career progression pathways, occupations and skills descriptions and programmes available for skills training. 

Source: NTUC This Week