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By Ian Tan Hanhonn
Hoteliers who are moving ahead with their digital transformation plans to adapt to the new normal will now have more targeted support under the Workforce Singapore (WSG) Professional Conversion Programme (PCP).
Together with the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU), WSG has revamped and enhanced the Job Redesign Reskilling (JRR) Programme for the Hotel Industry under the PCP. The programme will continue to support job redesign projects rolled out in tandem with hotels’ adoption of technology.
WSG issued a media release on this announcement on 12 March 2021.
For a start, 200 existing hotel workers can look forward to taking on enhanced careers in the hotel industry through the enhanced JRR Programme.
WSG Chief Executive Tan Choon Shian said: “Despite the deep impact of COVID19, the hotel industry has remained resilient, adaptive and a key part of Singapore’s economy and workforce.
“Technological adoption will play a huge part in the next phase of recovery, and we will carry on the strong collaboration with our tripartite partners to support the hoteliers’ manpower and digitalisation efforts so that they can emerge stronger and help our workers to continue forging meaningful careers in the industry.”
As hotels in Singapore prepare for the new norm, WSG said hotels are also accelerating their shift towards contactless interactions and crowd management, which are mainly enabled and supported by technology.
“This shift, in turn, presents a key opportunity for hoteliers to step up their enhancement of hotel jobs and translate them into more attractive, meaningful and sustainable hotel careers for Singaporeans through job redesign and technology adoption,” said WSG.
This shift will also mean that existing workers will need to be equipped with the skills to assume the new or enhanced job scopes.
The revamped JRR programme will also see workers being trained in emerging skills aligned with their company’s digitalisation efforts, which would bring about better career progression and productivity.
According to WSG, the JRR programme has helped more than 1,400 workers across more than 55 hotels have undergone reskilling and embarked on new or enhanced job roles since it was rolled out.
These include roles such as Lobby Specialists, Hotel Ambassadors and Facility Technicians.
Hoteliers keen to participate in the enhanced programme can refer to a list of 16 whitelisted job roles, which have been curated with inputs from SHA, STB and FDAWU.
These whitelisted job roles complement recommended technology implementation such as mobile check-in with facial recognition smart cameras, digital concierge, autonomous luggage cart, automated luggage storage system with facial recognition, and automated temperature-measuring and recording system.
FDAWU President Julie Cheong said: “The workers within the hotel industry are cognizant of the need to upskill and take on higher value-added roles. This pandemic may have greatly impacted the hotels, but we also see opportunities to push forth efforts for hotels to transform and redesign jobs for longer-term growth and for us to push for more collaboration with our tripartite partners to revitalise the industry.
“This is a win-win situation – companies will get more resources to transform, workers will enjoy better work prospects and have more opportunities in the hotel industry to work towards.”