by Koh Hui Theng

MS LENA Tan, 39, started her career as a tour executive at Chan Brothers Travel 12 years ago and worked her way up the career ladder.

Today, she is an operations manager who heads a team of seven and liaises with airlines, hotels and travel agents from around the world, including Australia, South Africa and the United States. She hopes to move into a marketing role eventually.

To pick up the necessary skills, Ms Tan is undergoing a nine-month-long course to obtain a Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) diploma.

She told my paper: 'Going for this course will help me to perform my professional duties well. That's useful in furthering my career.'

Ms Tan is one of 500 scholarship candidates who are benefiting from the tourism sector's latest initiative to attract, train and develop talent.

Promising operational, supervisory and managerial workers are sent on courses and they will graduate with a certificate, advanced certificate or diploma.

The WSQ scholarships are part of a $1.5-million collaboration among the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, Tourism Management Institute of Singapore and 12 companies to attract new talent, retain staff and lower the industry's high turnover.

According to the Manpower Ministry's Labour Market Survey, monthly resignations in the tourism and services sector averaged 4.3 per cent last year. In contrast, the manufacturing and financial sectors saw a 1.5 and 1.9 per cent monthly turnover respectively. Besides attracting new blood, the programme aims to boost staff retention by upgrading workers' skills and encouraging companies to adopt clear guidelines for human-resource practices, such as employee appraisals.

At a ceremony yesterday, the dozen companies - including Tradewinds Tours and Travel as well as the Singapore Flyer - pledged to send their employees for training under the programme over the next three years.

Chan Brothers Travel executive director Chan Guat Cheng said: 'The initiative provides a structured progression
pathway so that our staff can look forward to better development opportunities and, even, better promotion prospects.'

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