Businesses send employees to learn to digitise work processes at 2-day Skillsfuture training

SINGAPORE — For a number of years, furniture retailer Courts relied on training materials that were printed on paper.

This changed after its assistant manager, Ms Juzailah Abdul Rahim, underwent a two-day training course in July, as part of the pilot run of the SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace initiative.

The programme was officially launched on Thursday (Oct 5) and aims to equip workers with the skills needed in a digital economy. It targets to reach 100,000 people over the next three years. Participants take up courses on basic IT skills and other related training.

Ms Juzailah, 38, who has been with Courts for a decade, said that when new employees join her firm, they get handouts of the company’s code of ethics to read. “Everything was done using paper,” she said.

Then she went for her course and was taught how to take advantage of online tools such as Google Drive for those orientation sessions. Now, training materials are stored on the drive, which can be shared with new employees.

“Going through the SkillsFuture training made me realise that doing things online help to make the processes easier for both Human Resource (HR) personnel and employees. For our training sessions now, we hand out iPads to employees. They can even submit their feedback on the trainings online.”

Training under the SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace programme takes two days and costs S$50. Participants can use the SkillsFuture credit funded by the Government to pay the fee.

There are seven training partners roped in to conduct courses, including Asian Culinary Institute, Singapore Management University, NTUC LearningHub and Nanyang Polytechnic.

Ms Megan Ong, 43, a director of the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies at Nanyang Polytechnic, said that older participants involved in the pilot run of the programme were apprehensive about embracing digital skills.

That is because they have not been widely exposed to different technological tools and devices, she said. “They were from a generation (that relied on pen and paper), so the mindset for them is, it’s difficult to learn.”

She also recounted that the boss of a small and medium enterprise was “fearful” of using digital technology, saying he was not highly educated and would have trouble keeping up at the course.

Ms Ong told him that ignoring the technological shift could mean that his business would trail behind his competitors and suffer. He then changed his mind to enrol himself and a few workers for training.

For participants from the retail sector, their training includes a segment to learn how e-commerce platforms help to boost sales in stores. Ms Ong said: “You don’t introduce e-commerce to cannabalise your offline (physical stores). That’s not the point. But businesses have to transform and people have to change.”