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In addition, the telco has created a new learning academy, Singtel 8George, to enhance training efforts for its 12,000-strong workforce.
Leading communications technology group Singtel has committed to investing $20mn a year whilst doubling down on its efforts to build a future-ready workforce. Concomitantly, it has created a new learning academy, called Singapore 8George, to enable employees to learn at their preferred time and on their own terms, in person and on the go, virtually.
This was announced at a renewal ceremony for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the telecom group and the Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore (UTES) on 25 August 2022, attended by HRO. This MOU marks the renewal of the company training committee (CTC), whereby in 2019 Singtel became the first telecom group to sign such an MOU.
The event was attended and witnessed by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng.
Secretary-General Ng comments: "When UTES and Singtel formed the CTC in 2019, Singtel was among the first employers to come onboard with us to transform their business and workforce. Since then, our UTES sisters and brothers have worked closely with Singtel to successfully upskill over 2,500 Singtel employees, with improvements in employees’ learning hours by 15%."
He went on to say: "When workers can grow in tandem with business transformation, we can ensure that businesses continue to flourish, and workers can continue to earn good wages and enjoy better work prospects and welfare," adding that he looks forward to welcoming more companies onboard the CTC initiatives.
Under the MoU Singtel and UTES are expected to work closely to identify skills gaps, co-create relevant training programmes, and encourage employees to take up these training opportunities.
With the $20mn annual investment, Singtel will continue design and enhance its people development programmes, - e.g., inculcating the right mindset to drive innovation and pivot to address disruption, building an inclusive workplace culture, and developing leadership excellence.
As affirmed by Singtel Group Chief Executive Officer, Yuen Kuan Moon, one of Singtel’s top priorities is building an agile, digital and future-ready workforce. He elaborates: "This is important because we want to empower all our people to achieve their full potential in the digital economy, and to support our efforts to evolve from a telco to a ‘techco’.
"We will spare no effort to achieve this for our people, through our sustained investment training programmes and working closely with the union to encourage all their members to participate in those programmes."
In the past three years, Singtel has invested $45mn to develop new training programmes to train its people on emerging technologies and sponsored more than 60 employees for part-time courses.
The group also launched its Singtel Professional Conversion Accelerator programme which has equipped close to 1,500 employees in 5G and other in-demand tech skills. Employees who have undergone this programme have gone on to successfully take up new roles such as data analyst and 5G product development manager.
To date, over 2,500 Singtel employees benefited from these training efforts, which drove an annual 15% increase in learning places and learning hours per employee between 2019 and 2022, per the company's statement.
UTES General Secretary Thuvinder Singh expressed: “In the last three years, I saw first-hand Singtel’s commitment to partnering with UTES to train and develop a more digital and tech-savvy workforce, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. I look forward to working with my Singtel colleagues and my union brothers and sisters as we extend this partnership into the future, to equip all our workers with the digital skills so they can tap on the digital economy’s opportunities."
Lead image / Provided
(Seated L -R: Mohamed Latiff, Desmond Choo, Thuvinder Singh, Anna Yip, Charlton Ong, Gerald Koh
Standing L -R: Ng Chee Meng, Yuen Kuan Moon)
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