today Saturday 29 June 2013

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complementing home for talent initiative

Unilever opens S$80m leadership training centre

Facility, named Four Acres, is the MNCs first such centre outside the United Kingdom
LEE YEN NEE

leeyennee@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE The

Republics ambition to be a hub for training high-quality talent took a step forward yesterday with the opening of an S$80 million global leadership development centre by consumer goods giant Unilever. Officiating at the opening, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the facility, named Four Acres, complements the Home for Talent initiative, a strategy by the Economic Development Board (EDB) to make the country a place for companies to manage and develop talent to drive growth in Asia. Basing Four Acres here makes

sense for both Unilever and Singapore. To Unilever, we like to think that it enables (the firm) to take advantage of our talent development ecosystem and capabilities and helps (it) to groom leaders who will seize the opportunities in emerging regional markets, said Mr Lee. To Singapore, it also makes sense because Four Acres complements our Home for Talent initiative, he added. Unilevers leadership development campus, located at Nepal Hill at onenorth, is its first such centre outside the United Kingdom. The decision to base the campus in Asia reflects Unilevers strategy to grow its business in developing and emerging markets, which now account for more than 55 per cent of its global revenue, said Unilevers Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman. The company aims to double the size of its business by 2020, and the bulk of the growth will be driven by sales in developing markets.

With the partnerships we forged with local training vendors here, the people who train here will get an opportunity to be exposed to the faster growing markets and the issues that leaders face in Asia.
Mr John Nolan
Unilevers Senior Vice-President for Human Resources for Global Markets

Mr Lee speaking to Unilever staff during his tour of Four Acres yesterday. PHOTO: UNILEVER

Singapore sits at the nexus of the developed and emerging world. Its a leading hub for leadership and innovation, and a gateway to the rapidly growing Asian economies. When our future leaders come here we know they will gain exposure to new insights and perspectives, said Mr Polman. Four Acres in Singapore will deliver more than half of the 90 global leadership development courses Unilever plans to conduct globally every year. Between the campuses in Singapore and London, the programmes will train close to 3,000 employees annually. Some of these courses will be con-

ducted in cooperation with educational institutions here such as the Singapore Management University and Human Capital Leadership Institute. With the partnerships we forged with local training vendors here, the people who train here will get an opportunity to be exposed to the faster-growing markets and the issues that leaders face in Asia. I think that will provide them with a unique experience that they probably couldnt get if they were in London, Unilevers Senior Vice-President for Human Resources for Global Markets John Nolan told TODAY. for adults with disability is expected to rise by 30 per cent by 2016. To ramp up supply of social service professionals, the institutes new premises at TripleOne Somerset will help expand its training role with 34 new and enhanced courses some with Workforce Skills Qualifications. A new career centre will also help attract and retain talent, while providing career guidance and placement. It aims to place 1,900 new entrants including mid-career switchers into the social service sector in the next three years. Opened last month, the centre has attracted more than 100 interested job seekers since. The WDA will co-fund the training of Singaporeans and operations of the career centre with a grant of up to S$28 million over three years. To pay competitive wages, the ministry and the National Council of Social Service introduced salary benchmarking for key professions in the sector. The adjustment, which happened last year, saw more than 85per cent of MSF-funded VWOs raising the salaries of their staff by a median of 8 per cent. The next benchmarking exercise will happen in one to two years.

New initiative to help quickly fill job vacancies at VWOs

KOK XING HUI

xinghui@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE To

ease the manpower shortage faced by the social service sector, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is looking to recruit 15 social service professionals who can be deployed quickly to voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs). This is part of the Governments effort to centrally manage social service talents, who could be posted to VWOs facing difficulty recruiting fast enough to start up or expand key Government-funded programmes. Such innovative solutions are necessary to overcome these manpower challenges in a labour market with many competing careers, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday at the official opening of the Social Service Institute. The programme the MSF is exploring is part of an initiative to create a two-way flow of social service professionals between the ministry and VWOs. Apart from recruiting staff

who can be posted to VWOs, the MSF will also open up opportunities for VWO staff to be attached to the ministry itself. Details of the programmes are still being worked on, said an MSF spokesperson. The ministry will also take nine social work trainees under its wing next month under the Professional Conversion Programme for Social Workers supported by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). These are trainees assessed to be suitable for the UniSIM Accelerated Bachelor in Social Work or Graduate

Mr Tharman touring the Social Service Institutes Resource Hub yesterday.

PHOTO: NATIONAL COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE

Diploma in Social Work, but are not yet matched with an employer. The trainees will be attached to the ministry and be supervised by experienced social workers, then placed into social service jobs upon graduation. Mr Tharman stressed that although the Government is doing more to promote a fair and inclusive society through social and economic policies, the solution to low incomes and inequality does not only lie in supporting incomes through government transfers or other policy moves. It also takes people with the passion and skill to help others, he said. The social service profession is more important today than it has ever been. It is at the core of our collective effort to build a better Singapore, the minister said. As of last month, there are 1,400 registered social workers and social service practitioners. Faced with an ageing population, more are required. For example, demand for manpower in the elderly and disability service sub-sectors such as in senior group homes, senior care centres and homes