Successful Completion of the Inaugural On-Site-Bite-Size (OSBS) Customer Service Training Programme CapitaLand Retail’s Tenants at IMM
NEWS RELEASE
Singapore, 8 April 2009 – The inaugural “Provide GEMS Service” On-Site-Bite-Size (OSBS) training programme under Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) was successfully completed today at IMM. A total of 24 participants from IMM graduated from the programme which began on 23 March 2009. Their graduation ceremony today was graced by Mrs Josephine Teo, Assistant Secretary-General of National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Executive Secretary of the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU).
2 The inaugural “Provide GEMS Service” OSBS programme at IMM was a collaboration between CapitaLand Retail Limited (CapitaLand Retail) and the tripartite partners, comprising SISEU, the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).
3 WDA and Kaplan Professional, a Continuing Education and Training (CET) Centre, had jointly developed the “Provide GEMS Service” OSBS training programme with the aim to reach out and raise the level of service standards of small-to-medium size retailers. Many of these retailers cannot afford the resources to send their workers for full-day offsite training. Hence, an OSBS mode of delivering the training was introduced such that short training sessions are conducted at or near the retailers’ shops so as not to disrupt their business operations while not denying the workers the opportunity to receive skills upgrading.
4 This is not the first collaboration between CapitaLand Retail and the tripartite partners. Earlier on 23 February 2009, CapitaLand Retail organised its Retail Biz+ event, “Gearing Up for the Challenges”, where the tripartite partners shared with over 250 CapitaLand Retail tenants details of how they can tap on SPUR funding and training to save costs and upgrade their operations during the downturn.
5 CapitaLand Retail tenants at the Retail Biz+ event had expressed keen interest to attend OSBS training. The first CapitaLand Retail mall to roll out the programme is IMM, and CapitaLand Retail’s learning facility located within the same building provided the ideal training venue.
6 The 12-hour training programme was broken into five sessions held during non-peak retailing hours, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., every Monday and Friday. Each session is a combination of classroom and workplace coaching, observation as well as assessment. Apart from enjoying the convenience of the training location and hours, tenants also receive SPUR funding as the programme is a certified course under the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework. Please see Annex A for the list of participating IMM tenants.
7 Mr Lim Beng Chee, Chief Executive Officer of CapitaLand Retail, said, “As the largest retail mall owner and manager in Singapore, we fully support the Government’s tripartite initiatives to help retailers find ways to save jobs and costs through skills upgrading, and concurrently raise the service standards of the retail industry. We are heartened that many of our retailers are proactive in tapping on available funding to retrain their workers. Many of them are also actively reviewing their cost structure, business model and tailoring their products and services to adapt to the current market conditions. These proactive retailers deserve all the support and assistance to ride out this downturn. We will continue to stay close and work with them individually to craft out solutions that suit their circumstances in these difficult times.”
8 Mrs Josephine Teo, Executive Secretary of SISEU and NTUC’s Assistant Secretary-General encouraged more tenants to improve service levels with the help of SPUR funding, “SME retailers tend to have very lean manpower staffing and the conventional way of training delivery is not feasible for them. Through this pilot of the on-site-bite-sized delivery method, we have seen how the staff can get trained with minimal disruption to business operations. Ultimately, the aim is to upturn customers’ shopping experience and of course, retailers’ businesses.”
9 Even at age 47, Mdm Harita Binte Khamis, a stall assistant from Bagus Food Court at IMM, was one of the most passionate participants in the course. Mdm Harita had been a production operator for 23 years before making a career switch to the retail industry two months ago. “I am not afraid to try new things and I want to improve myself as I am only two months into this job. From the course, I have learnt how I should conduct myself in front of the customer, and how I can communicate to make the customer happy. It is also good for me that each training session lasted only two hours which helped me to retain my new knowledge better.”
10 With the successful completion of the inaugural “Provide GEMS Service” OSBS training programme at IMM, CapitaLand Retail and the tripartite partners will explore rolling out training for the rest of the tenants at IMM and other CapitaLand Retail malls.
Annex A
List of participating tenants at IMM
