INTEGRATED RESORTS

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INTEGRATED RESORTS:

(Potential workforce planning): 13.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast) asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what measures does his Ministry have in place to prepare the potential workforce planning to work in the Integrated Resorts to successfully adapt to the specific mindsets and outlook required by that industry.

The Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr S Iswaran) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, Sir, the two Integrated Resorts (IRs) will directly create around 20,000 jobs over the next three years. Most will be in the areas of F&B, hotels, gaming and attractions. These jobs require

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workers with the skills, knowledge and attitude that are similar to the requirements of tourism establishments in general. The Member has asked how we are preparing for this and the answer is that we have a plethora of initiatives.

WDA and STB have launched the TOurism TALent (TOTAL) plan in October 2007. This is to support employment growth in the tourism industry. The TOTAL plan aims to train 74,000 workers for the next three years with a budget of $360 million. There are three prongs to this plan. The first is the focus on pre-employment training (PET) for students. The second is the continuing education and training (CET) for adults and the third is industry development to attract local workers. There is already early evidence of heightened interest in tourism related courses in our institutions. The polytechnic and ITE student intake for the tourism courses in 2007 was two-and-a-half times that in 2005 and we expect this to grow further in the coming years.

WDA has also made good progress in adult training. Between January 2007 and June 2008, more than 30,000 individuals were upgraded under the Tourism Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) programme. These individuals, who represent a good mix of both new entrants to and existing workers in the industry, will help meet the needs of the overall industry as well as the Integrated Resorts.

Customer service is essential for all jobs in these industries. To enhance the focus on service excellence, WDA has put in place its Service Excellence Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework. The programme equips trainees with the comprehensive set of skills and attitudes for operational, supervisory and managerial positions. To date, more than 18,000 workers have been trained under the Service Excellence WSQ framework. WDA targets to train a further 50,000 workers under this framework by 2010.

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WDA also recently launched the Certified Service Professional (CSP) programme targeted at new entrants into the hospitality industry. It is a five-day intensive training programme aimed at developing the service mindset, passion and qualities required of a service professional. It is done through an experiential process involving many real-life tourism-related service applications. The target is to train 36,000 workers under the CSP programme by 2010. Beyond these broad-based programmes, the IRs could draw skilled and trained workers through these programmes. STB is working directly with tourism establishments to meet their specific training needs through the Training Industry Professionals in Tourism (TIP-iT) scheme. In fact, Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) will be utilising this scheme to send over 1,300 of their new hires in batches to Genting Highlands and Universal Studios Park for up to three months to gain exposure to casino and theme park operations.

SPRING will also be working with the IRs on a Customer Centric Initiative (CCI) to set and maintain high service standards in the resorts. Under the CCI, SPRING will support efforts by the IRs in assessing service levels and identifying service gaps. This can then form the basis for developing service strategies and service blueprints to bring about effective and efficient service systems and processes. With the Government working closely together with our industries and the IR operators directly, we are confident that our workforce will be ready with the necessary skills, mindsets and outlook needed to work in the IRs and related areas.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: Thank you, Minister, for the very comprehensive answer and it is very comforting to know that we will be ready, when the time comes.

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Sir, I would like to check to what extent will the local workforce that we are gearing up be sufficient to adequately fill the vacancies needed in the IRs? Secondly, in the event that there is a gap, in terms of the manning levels, how are we to fill up these gaps? Are we opening up to the foreigners and, if we are, how are we going to ensure that these foreigners will come in with the same standard of service that we have been training our people for?

Mr Iswaran: Mr Speaker, Sir, clearly, there is tightness in our labour market and that means that as we generate this new sector with growing demand for workers, there is going to be pressure on supply sources. The work and the programmes which I just elaborated, which are undertaken by STB and WDA, are to really generate the supply to meet the demand from local sources. That basically means, first, for people who are already in the industry but who may want, with some modifications and some training, able to adapt themselves to the opportunities offered by the IRs. The second is, of course, pre-employment training, that is, in schools, our polytechnics and ITEs. The third is also for those who may want to switch from other industries into this area. So those are efforts we have undertaken and we are also hoping that through this process, those who are currently not participating in the workforce, will also come forward through these programmes to get involved in these new opportunities.

Having said that, the market is tight and we do expect that there will be some difficulties for the IR operators to fill all their needs or their assured needs through just local sources. So we will have to work closely with the IR operators to see how well their needs can be met. At this stage, they are on track to meet their requirements and what they have assured

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us, through their RFPs, in terms of the local component of the workforce. But we will be monitoring the situation over the next few months and years leading up to the opening of the IRs to see how we can work with them on this.

The Member also asked if we were to bring in foreign workers, how they will be prepared. This is something which the IR operators have as much of a vested interest as we do in maintaining the service quality and standard. Most of them – not just the IR operators but in general tourism and hospitality establishments – put their staff through a regular regime of pre-deployment training to ensure that minimum service standards are met and according to their specification.