City & Guilds prepares jobseekers for hospitality surge

Singapore – While the labour shortage in the white collar industries has garnered most of the media attention, the focus is slowly shifting to the growing need for skilled vocational workers - especially in the hospitality industry.

Due to publicity from the imminent opening of Integrated Resorts (IR) and Formula 1 GrandPrix, there has been an increase in labour demand from the hospitality industry. Despite the large number of skilled workers available from neighbouring countries to meet the manpower shortage, it is important for Singapore to grow and expand their vocational talent pool to meet the market demands. And Calvin Tan, manager for City & Guilds’ Asia hub, believes the Singapore worker is rising to the challenge. He cites evidence from the vocational qualifications provider’s uptake of the hospitality programmes in Singapore, which has “more than doubled in response to the impending opening of the IRs.”

Crediting media exposure from the hospitality and tourism industries for the rise in the provider’s income, Tan says its hospitality suite and the tourism award programmes have seen “demand gone up by 100% and 500% respectively”.

Besides accommodating the growing need for hospitality talent, it is equally important for locals to have the desire to train or retrain their skill sets in other non-traditional career paths as a means to remain employable. Tan feels vocational education and training allows the jobseekers to gain “practical skills to deliver the job” as “academic theory will be immediately challenged in the real world”. He adds, “Life is like being in a big classroom requiring life-long learning. There are the few who are self-learners, but the majority of people appreciate retraining.”

Some qualifications that could be relevant in this respect include business studies, office skills, engineering, beauty therapy, hairdressing, horticulture, dog grooming, construction, plumbing and carpentry.

Since February 2007, City & Guilds has been engaging with approved local training providers to promote vocational training initiatives. It is estimated that 2,000 candidates will benefit from its programmes in Singapore this year.