Championing Retail Workers’ Training

Mavis enjoys her job immensely and she has never once doubted her decision to join the Retail Team in the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).

“I joined WDA as a fresh graduate from the Nanyang Business School (NBS). ‘Training and development’ has always been one of the areas I'm interested in, so what could be more meaningful than championing the development of Singapore's workforce through continuing education and training!” she quipped with a grin.

 

At The Frontline

Since the start of her career in WDA, Mavis has been with the Healthcare, Retail and Business Services Division, which looks into matters pertaining to workforce development in the Healthcare, Community and Social Services, Landscape, Environmental Cleaning, Security, Floristry and Retail industries.

As a frontline officer in her Division’s Retail Team, Mavis’ work puts her in frequent contact with partners and retailers in various trades.

Encouraged By Family To Return To Work

 

Carol had planned on having an early retirement and filling her days with a host of leisure activities. It was her son’s persuasion that made her re-think her plans.

“I had worked for many years at various organisations and I’d even run a food stall at a school previously, so I wanted to wind down and just relax,” she explained. “But, after resting for some time, my son felt I still had many productive years to go and with my vast working experience, he encouraged me to return to the workforce.”

With little computer knowledge and skills then, Carol was initially hesitant about looking for a job. But all that changed when she saw a poster at the South-West Community Development Council (CDC) encouraging people to step out and return to the workforce.

 

Returning to Her Profession After Years Away

In 2000, Priya had moved to Mauritius shortly after marriage, because of her husband’s job. The birth of first her son, and then her daughter three years later, kept her fully occupied, with little energy to consider anything else.

 

It was only when her son turned eight that Priya and her husband decided it was time to return to give their children a better education, even though her future back in Singapore was uncertain.

 

Moving Back Home

“Frankly, I was worried about coming back alone. I knew I definitely needed a job to manage our living expenses. But having been away for 10 years, I didn’t know if I was still relevant and employable,” Priya recounted of her early fears.

 

All Priya could count on then was her training and prior experience as a nurse. To improve her chances, she wrote to most of the hospitals in Singapore while preparing for their return.

Bringing Knowledge From Home to the Workplace

 

Jasmine Lai has been a home maker since she got married, and became a stay-at-home mum to look after her kids. Now, with all her children in school, it did not take Jasmine long to realise she wanted a more meaningful activity in the mornings. “Ever since my youngest son entered primary school, I considered seriously about going back to work. But I was not sure what I could do as I had lost touch with the job market during the 14 years I stayed at home to look after my three sons,” she shared about her early doubts.

The QIANG Way Forward

Stream Peak International, the largest desiccant converter in Singapore, is one of the organisations that has benefited from the "SME Quality Initiatives to Assist, Nurture and Grow" (SME QIANG) programme SME QIANG is a new customised productivity and innovation training programme under Productivity Initiatives in Services & Manufacturing (PRISM) which is a cluster of productivity-related Continuing Education and Training programmes .

Mr Jeffrey Foo, General Manager of Stream Peak International shared, “At first it was difficult to identify the areas for improvement. But after a few workshops with the Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation consultants , where we did project scoping and data collection together, we realised that the underlying problem was two under-utilised high performing machines that we had.“

Implementing New Tools Of The Trade

From daily dealings with machine tools, the general manager of Makino Asia, Simon Yim, took to productivity tools at the workplace for a change. It was a change that was met with marked success.

Makino Asia is a global machine tools manufacturer with fully integrated operations in Singapore, encompassing Research and Development, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Business Development activities under one roof. So, it was of concern when Simon Yim and his team discovered discrepancies between the company’s assembly elapsed hours and the standard hours. He also noticed that at the middle management level, there was a need to improve the knowledge and skills needed to understand, analyse and implement initiatives to improve productivity and quality.