Upgrading Courses Helped Former Self-Employed Man Step Out Of Comfort Zone

When Francis Pang was unemployed for six months, scary thoughts raced through his mind as he was the sole breadwinner. With only a Secondary Three education, he knew he faced an uphill task to find a job.

“I was unsure where to seek help for my financial problems. I was under pressure to find a job to support my family,” recalled the former self-employed 51-year-old, who previously handled material handling equipment and racking systems for industrial use. “The monthly bills had to be paid for and the daily expenses for the family were the main problems that troubled me. But even in lean times, I constantly reminded myself to adopt a positive mindset.”

“I waded through the Straits Times advertisements many times and sent out scores of applications, which went unanswered until I dropped by the NorthWest CDC in Woodlands Civic Centre, where I met Stephen Lai. He gave me the opportunity that I was looking for but advised me to go for upgrading courses so that I find a better job.”

From cleaning lady to childcare centre assistant

Ms Ang Chin Choo used to clean her sister's Japanese pub every weekend.  Before this, she was helping out at a sushi stall in a shopping mall near her home.  She could not take on a full-time job as her children were still young and she had to take care of them when they came back from school.  Her husband was also not supportive of her going out to work as she had her hands full with house work.  “He looked forward to warm, home-cooked meals when he came home from work,” quipped Ms Ang.

Upgrading with Workfare-Skill Up programme

The situation changed when her children were old enough to take care of themselves.  Her eldest child has just graduated from university while her youngest child has just enrolled in the polytechnic.  Her brother who knew about the Workfare–Skill Up programme encouraged her to upgrade herself.  When Ms Ang first approached course consultant Marilyn Tay at NorthEast CDC, she did not know what courses to take as she had no concrete plans for the future.  The latter was very encouraging and advised her to register for some basic courses first before choosing a career path.

Never Too Old To Learn

Mdm Seah Huat Tin, 55, works as a cleaning lady at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The chatty and confident mother of four daughters recounts that she was a completely different person five years ago when she was still a housewife. 

“My children had all grown up and were leading their own lives. I did not know what to do at home all day, so I spent the whole day sleeping and watching television. For three years I suffered from depression,” said Mdm Seah. Seeing her mother so listless, Mdm Seah's daughters advised her to look for a job to break out of the cycle of inertia and depression.

Mdm Seah eventually found a job as a cleaning lady at a NTU hostel, but found that she had difficulties communicating in English with the multi-national students and staff residing there. When they ask her for directions, she could only shake her head in incomprehension.

Her daughters learnt about her difficulties and recommended that she register for the Workplace Literacy (Conversational) Course under the Workfare-Skill Up programme offered by WDA. 

Valuing Older Workers

It’s a home-away-from-home feeling for senior workers with the elderly-friendly work environment at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport hotel. “We truly value our older employees and recognise their contributions to the hotel,” said General Manager Steven Chan.

As part of Crowne Plaza’s pre-opening strategy to implement a sustainable re-employment system in the hotel, Crowne Plaza tapped on the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA)’s Capability Development and Training Grant to be an in-house Approved Training Organisation and deliver WSQ (Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications) training to staff.

“Our management priorities are to align employees’ skill sets with industry standards and provide them with the relevant accreditations required to excel in their work,” he said. “We understand that the right training will greatly improve their employability and encourage them to continue being gainfully employed even past their retirement years.”

Not Afraid To Explore the Unknown

Koh Ho Peng stumbled on opportunities in the aviation industry by chance and he was glad he took the plunge. “Sometime in early 2009, during a chat with a family friend, he happened to talk about WDA’s Professional Conversion Programme,” Ho Peng said. “He told me about the Foundation Degree to train people to become qualified aircraft engineers and he urged me to explore this avenue since I’ve always been interested in engineering.”

Stirred by his friend’s sharing, Ho Peng decided to find out more about the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP), which assists professionals in switching to new occupations in other industries. He was immediately attracted to its comprehensive training programme and felt assured by its allowance scheme.

“As the family’s sole breadwinner, and with two children in school, I have to be very careful about any career move. I discussed with my wife and she supported me as we felt that the PCP could help me realise my ambition,” Ho Peng remembered.

A Desire To Help

About five years back, Cecilia was looking for a job that suited her personality. She wanted to help people find avenues they can excel in, and develop their abilities through their various life stages. Having had a few opportunities to take on human resource management (HRM) responsibilities, she decided this was the area that she would like to develop further.

“Human resource management encompasses a very wide field. But it is essentially about helping people and the organisation,” Cecilia shared. “When I look around me, I see a lot of people having the desire to move to the next stage of their career or in their personal development, and I want to be in the position to help them.”

With that conviction, she took on a management-support role in a medical education organisation, handling human resource matters and sponsorship for Clinicians and Postgraduates.

A Heart For The Underprivileged

When he was younger, Clement was often puzzled when he heard the story of the boy who rescued starfish by throwing them back into the sea. He just could not see how this would help the thousands of starfish that were swept ashore by the currents.

Today, as a social worker, Clement finally understands what the boy was getting at. “Like the boy, we may not be able to help everybody, but the important thing is to help who we can,” Clement reflected. “In Singapore, despite our rapid economic progress, there are families who are left behind and they struggle to keep afloat financially. Though not often in the public eye, their plight is very real and is made worse by the current economic pressures.”

In Clement’s work, he assists families who are in a tight spot financially by helping them apply for short term financial assistance and guiding them in working out a long term plan for self reliance. Besides that, he also provides emotional support, basic counselling, as well as link beneficiaries up with other community resources.

Marathon Job Search

Tertiary-educated Tan Wei Thong, a management professional for 15 years, never believed he would give up his Shanghai job as Business Unit Director with a main-board listed company. But when there were early signs that his two primary school going sons were slackening in their studies, Wei Thong decided to return to Singapore.

“The thought of relocating back to Singapore surfaced when I realised my elder son was struggling with his studies,” he said. “I guessed my wife also missed my pair of extra hands, be it in the children’s education, ferrying them for enrichment courses or sharing the household burden.”

However, it never crossed his mind on the need to be retrained in order to fit into the Singapore workforce. Returning to Singapore after his seven-year overseas stint, stark reality hit him as he endured a heart-breaking eight months before he found a new job.

Giving Older Workers an ADVANTAGE!

There’s a refreshingly new sparkle at St Luke’s Eldercare (SLEC), an extension project of St Luke’s Hospital, and one of the largest eldercare facilities in Singapore. The new buzz comes after they got hold of the ADVANTAGE! Scheme and were able to enhance their work processes for the benefit of their older workers, with more than 40% of its employees aged 55 and above.

Currently, SLEC have 11 centres island wide and has been providing quality day care, active rehab and wellness services to the elderly and seniors in the community since 2001. Since they signed on to the scheme, SLEC has significantly improved the work processes of their staff.

“We’ve benefitted from improvements in the job processes of the employees. Through mechanisation of tasks and the enhancement of the processes, the heavy weight borne by our mature employees is reduced and the overall efficiency and safety have increased,” said SLEC Operations Manager Sia Jia Hui. “This ultimately translates, very significantly, to better care for the elderly.”

‘Forklift’ To A New Life

Mohamed Hardi Bin Abdullah calls it the “turning point in my life” when he passed the five-day forklift driver training course at PSA Corporation. Prior to that, the eight-letter word “forklift” was foreign to him as the 33-year-old was only accustomed to the hotel-service industry, where he was a Bell Captain until his hotel was taken over by a new management in 2009.

“I jumped from one contract job to another, rather aimlessly, as I had to make ends meet at home,” recalled the father of a four-year-old girl, who lives in Jurong West. And it was while working at one of these jobs that he found out that most of his colleagues had a forklift licence.

“I asked them further on the job-scope, career advancement and pay-structure as I was not familiar with the warehouse industry. The more I asked, the more interesting and challenging answers I got,” he said. “I later found out that it cost $500 to obtain a forklift licence. This was way beyond my budget.”

Finance Executive Turned Tourism Ambassador

Five years ago, Vany Ramakrishnan would never have dreamt of working in a resort. “I was working in a bank then and I loved the buzz in the finance world,” Vany recalled. “My job gave me lots of interesting exposure, but I wanted to do something where I could meet and connect with people on a face-to-face level.”

Encouraged by the opportunities and growth in the tourism industry, Vany explored her options for a career switch where she discovered the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) – which helps professionals switch to new occupations in other industries. On the advice of the PCP consultants from the Tourism Management Institute of Singapore (TMIS), she took up the WSQ Diploma in Tourism to prepare herself for the tourism industry.

“I’m really glad I went through the diploma programme first,” Vany shared. “The course gave me a good understanding of the different facets of tourism and the areas I could work in. On top of that, I had the chance to have some hands-on industrial experience before making the switch. This really increased my confidence when I went for job interviews.”