By Goh Chin Lian

RIVERVIEW Hotel's human resource manager Christine Chan struggles to find suitable courses for her staff, as the vast array offered by about 10 training providers serves only to confuse her.

However, the tough work has been taken out of her hands by NTUC LearningHub.

It now collates course outlines from different training providers and coordinates the training schedules of hotels.

This one-stop service is welcomed by Ms Chan.

She said: 'If all the training providers were to send people to talk to me, I would have to spend about 10 days figuring out the course details and fees.'

'That would be a big headache,' added Ms Chan, who shares the HR work with two others.

Other Singapore hoteliers, such as Raffles, Pan Pacific and Hilton, also lauded the new initiative, saying it makes it easier for them to take advantage of the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or Spur.

This government-sponsored scheme subsidises the wages of workers who are on training and pays for part of their training fees.

Ms Chan said her hotel plans to send more than 40 of its 250 staff for Spur training this month, for the first time. The course for them is workplace safety and health.

The struggles of HR executives were highlighted by NTUC LearningHub's chief executive officer Zee Yoong Kang yesterday, when the new service was announced. It was introduced first in the logistics sector in March.

Mr Zee said many of them find the suite of training packages from about 40 training providers 'bewildering and difficult to manage'.

Also, many training providers lack a large sales and marketing team to reach out to bosses even as some struggle to fill their classes, he added.

The latest initiative taps on the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers' Union's links with the hotels and NTUC LearningHub's network of training providers, to better match the demand and supply for Spur courses.

Yesterday, 32 hotels and nine Continuing Education and Training centres signed a Memorandum of Understanding affirming their commitment to Spur training.

Deputy labour chief Heng Chee How, who was present, told reporters that the National Trades Union Congress wants the industry to develop enough manpower so that when the economy recovers, 'there would not be too much of a skills shortage'.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.