Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Zaqy Mohamad at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre during the opening ceremony of the Singapore Business Federation's Future Economy Conference and Exhibition on Oct 16, 2019
Companies looking to boost their digitalisation efforts will now be able to benefit from three new programmes that collectively target workers across all levels of a business.
The programmes will be offered by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Institute of Systems Science at National University of Singapore (NUS-ISS), with the two organisations signing a memorandum of understanding yesterday.
(From Left to Right: Mr Teo Siong Seng, Chairman, SBF, Mr Ho Meng Kit, CEO, SBF, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State, Ministry of National Development & Ministry of Manpower, Mr Khoong Chan Meng, CEO of NUS-ISS and Professor Tan Eng Chye, President, NUS)
Digital Transformation Programmes by NUS-ISS and SBF
Business owners and leaders can sign up for the Digital Competency Roadmap comprising three courses over four days.
The courses aim to equip them with the mindset and know-how needed to map out an effective digitalisation strategy for their firms.
There is also a longer five-course, 13-day variant for employees at the executive level.
Executives who wish to take their classroom learning further can also work towards a Professional Diploma in Digitalisation jointly awarded by SBF and NUS-ISS.
This programme will include a four-month project, in which experts from NUS-ISS will guide participants to apply what they have learnt when they are back in their own companies.
The last programme, called Skills for Transformation, is targeted at companies that have already started on their digital transformations.
Depending on each company's needs, NUS-ISS will then work with them to roll out specific training programmes for their employees.
The programmes were announced by Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Zaqy Mohamad at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre during the opening ceremony of SBF's Future Economy Conference and Exhibition.
"Transformation is an ongoing journey. For companies that have started, you must press on and continue to look out for new opportunities... For those that have yet to start, I encourage you to do so now," he said.
The programmes are expected to kick off early next year and are open to SBF members. Those interested in finding out more can attend a 9.30am briefing at the SBF Centre on Nov 20 or register their interest at https://nus.edu/2oNvhfI
The programmes are targeted mainly at companies from the retail, logistics, food and beverage, manufacturing and built environment sectors, but SBF is open to considering companies from other industries, said its assistant chief executive Joanne Guo.
She added that SkillsFuture subsidies will offset programme costs by up to 90 per cent for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 70 per cent for non-SMEs.
Mr Zaqy also also provided an update on the Infocomm Media Development Authority's Digital Acceleration Index (DAI), revealing that more than 2,000 companies have used the index since its launch earlier this year.
The DAI is a self-diagnostic tool that gauges how far along companies are in their digital transformation and provides insights into their digital strengths and weaknesses.
The next window for registration will open in January.
Article was written by Lester Wong and first appeared in the Tech segment of The Straits Times here.
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