Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic and NTUC LearningHub Announce Collaboration to Expand Singapore�s Healthcare Competencies Through SGUnited Skills Programme

SINGAPORE�- Media OutReach - 15 October
2020 - The Healthcare Academy — a collaboration by NTUC
LearningHub (NTUC LHUB), Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU) and NTUC’s Employability
and Employment Institute (e2i) — today announced partnerships with Ngee Ann Polytechnic
and Republic Polytechnic to leverage the expertise of each institution to enhance
the quality of training and expand the nation’s healthcare and community care
competencies. These competencies will directly address skills gaps and talent
needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the evolving health needs
of Singaporeans as the healthcare industry continues its long-term shift
towards preventive and community care. This will be done through well-rounded,
collaborative training programmes offered as part of the Government’s SGUnited
Skills (SGUS) Programme.

The
collaboration is also driven by a desire to upskill healthcare employees and
expand their competencies, as more pressure is placed on the sector for care
delivery and medical support[1].
This initiative also supports the nation’s plan to build a pipeline of talent, who
may not have prior healthcare industry experience, to join the sector [2].

Participants
will be able to select from three tracks including Basic Care Assistant and
Healthcare Assistant offered by Healthcare Academy and Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s
School of Health Sciences and School of Humanities & Social Sciences, and Community
Care Workforce — which includes care coordinators, health coaches and case
managers — by Healthcare Academy and Republic Polytechnic’s School of Sports,
Health and Leisure. These tracks were specially chosen to address both
immediate and longer term needs of the community
care sector.

In each
of the three tracks, the modules and real-world practicum are curated to form a
six-month-long programme. The fundamental skills acquired will enable
participants to take on new roles in the healthcare sector, even if they have
had no prior experience.

In addition, designed with the goal of
improving the employability of participants, the SGUS Programme encompasses career
advisory and employment facilitation efforts from NTUC LHUB to assist trainees
in their job search in the healthcare sector.

“We are excited to partner Healthcare Academy
to meet the nation’s growing demand for healthcare services. Ngee Ann
Polytechnic has been grooming compassionate and competent professionals for the
sector through our School of Health Sciences since 2005. Together with our
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, our programmes will offer additional multi-disciplinary
skills in a blended learning environment most suited for adult learners. The
launch of the SGUnited Skills Programme targeted at mid-career professionals
will allow them to acquire expertise in key areas such as infection control,
wellness and counselling, to help build a strong talent pool and a sustainable
healthcare system,” says Mr Clarence Ti, Principal of Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Mr Yeo Li Pheow, Principal/ CEO, Republic Polytechnic, says, “We are
pleased to collaborate with Healthcare Academy in delivering professional
training for our healthcare workforce. Republic Polytechnic is well-positioned
to support the increased need for healthcare and community care professionals,
with our range of Pre-employment Training (PET) and Continuing Education and
Training (CET) programmes that nurture a skilled healthcare workforce at any
stage of their career. The SGUnited Skills Programme in Community Care and
Health will enable healthcare professionals to upskill and expand their
competencies in delivering high quality community care outcomes, while also
allowing mid-career entrants to contribute towards Singapore’s evolving
healthcare needs.” 

“The Healthcare Academy was established to support the continuous
learning and career aspirations of healthcare employees, especially through
changing times. This collaboration with like-minded partners such as Ngee Ann
Polytechnic and Republic Polytechnic will help bolster existing efforts by
Healthcare Academy to groom more healthcare employees and help sustain
Singapore’s world-class healthcare system. Through the three distinct
healthcare tracks, we hope to generate more healthcare employees to thrive in a
growing sector with numerous career opportunities,” says Deputy Chairman of
Healthcare Academy and CEO of NTUC LHUB, Kwek Kok Kwong.

“The Healthcare
Academy endeavours to fulfil the healthcare sector’s skills  development needs for healthcare employees in
this era of industry transformation. In the last 3 years, we have offered
several customised programmes for our healthcare employees. We are now rolling
out programmes to train Singaporeans from other industry sectors to be well
equipped with the skills, knowledge and competency to work in various
healthcare institutions with the support of Skillsfuture Singapore (SSG) and
e2i as well as in collaboration with Republic Polytechnic and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU) is indeed heartened to see the
growth of the Healthcare Academy especially in supporting SGUS effort. We
invite more Singaporeans to take up jobs in the healthcare sector for better
career opportunity and job security through our employment and employability
efforts,” says Chairman of Healthcare Academy and President of HSEU, K
Thanaletchimi.

Interested
participants may apply for the programme via https://bit.ly/sgunitedskills.

About Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Ngee Ann Polytechnic started in 1963 and is today one of Singapore’s
leading institutions of higher learning with over 14,000 enrolled students in
over 30 disciplines. It seeks to develop students with a passion for learning,
values for life, and competencies to thrive in a global workplace. 

http://www.np.edu.sg

About
Republic Polytechnic

The first
educational institution in Singapore to leverage the Problem-based Learning
approach for all its diploma programmes, Republic Polytechnic (RP) has seven
schools and one academic centre offering 37 full-time diplomas in Applied
Science, Engineering, Management and Communication, Hospitality, Infocomm,
Sports, Health & Leisure, and Technology for the Arts.

 

RP is
committed to nurturing professionals with strong problem-solving capabilities
through an innovative and entrepreneurial learning environment, based on a
holistic and industry-relevant curriculum. RP’s Academy For Continuing
Education also offers a comprehensive suite of lifelong learning programmes to
provide adult learners with skills upgrading opportunities.

 

For more
information, visit http://www.rp.edu.sg

About Healthcare
Academy

Healthcare
Academy is a collaboration among Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU),
Employability and Employment Institute (e2i) and NTUC LearningHub (LHUB).
Healthcare Academy endeavours to:

 

• Support
  continuous learning for healthcare workers, especially those affected by
  industry restructuring, job re-design and technological disruptions
• Provide
  employment opportunities for displaced workers from other sectors to work in
  the healthcare sector through robust job matching process
• Equip
  healthcare workers with relevant adaptive skills, technology skills and
  technical skills, to be future ready for business transformation

 

Healthcare
Academy was birth forth in August 2018 when we envisage the need for healthcare
workers to be more agile and adaptive to the changes brought on by
technological disruption and demographic changes. We started our journey by
addressing one very fundamental change element which is the mind, helping
workers to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. We developed our
first programme to help workers develop a positive mindset for the workplace.
Since then, we have learned and grew, and more products and solutions have been
added to our offerings.

About NTUC
LearningHub

 

NTUC LearningHub is the leading Continuing
Education and Training provider in Singapore which aims to transform the
lifelong employability of working people. Since our corporatisation in 2004, we
have been working employers and individual learners to provide learning solutions
in areas such as Cybersecurity, Infocomm Technology, Healthcare, Employability
& Literacy, Business Excellence, Workplace Safety & Health, Security,
Human Resources and Foreign Worker Training.

 

To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped over 21,000
organisations and achieved over 2.5 million training places across more than
500 courses with a pool of over 400 certified trainers. As a Total Learning
Solutions provider to organisations, we also forge partnerships and offer a
wide range of relevant end-to-end training solutions and work constantly to
improve our training quality and delivery. In 2020, we have accelerated our
foray into online learning with our Virtual Live Classes and, through working
with best-in-class partners such as IBM, DuPont Sustainable Solutions and GO1,
asynchronous online courses. 

 

For more information, visit www.ntuclearninghub.com.