Singapore public healthcare sector gets training boost

THE National Healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), together with the Healthcare Academy, will be scaling up training in the public healthcare sector.

Under two memoranda of understanding the Healthcare Academy has inked respectively with NHG and SingHealth, the agencies will set up company training committees (CTCs) at their respective cluster levels, to help workers whose jobs may be disrupted in the next five to 10 years.

Jobs impacted include health attendants, hospital porters, storekeepers, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians and drivers, to name a few.

The setting up of the CTCs will benefit more than 9,000 workers under NHG and 24,000 workers under SingHealth, the agencies said on Tuesday.

Healthcare Academy, NHG and SingHealth will also look to reach over 60 per cent of the public healthcare sector workforce across 22 institutions, in a bid to help workers upskill and adapt to a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, the joint statement added.

Healthcare Academy, set up in 2018, is formed by the Healthcare Services' Employees Union (HSEU), the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), and NTUC LearningHub (LHUB).

HSEU will work with the management to identify skills and competencies gaps, and develop structured training frameworks. Meanwhile, e2i and LearningHub will facilitate training and learning for workers.

The academy, together with NHG and SingHealth management, will establish jobs, skills and training committees at their respective cluster levels.

Healthcare Acedemy representatives will also work with the management of NHG and SingHealth by forming committee workgroups at the institution and domain level respectively.

These workgroups aim to develop new skills among healthcare workers, help existing workers and new workers transition into new and redesigned job roles and enhance skills upgrading initiatives.

For example, NHG's Khoo Teck Puat Hospital worked with HSEU to upskill all 46 of its existing hospital porters to become more involved with direct patient care as healthcare chaperones. These healthcare chaperones subsequently went on to understudy healthcare assistants and nurses at the wards.

Previously, the Healthcare Academy set up CTCs with Tan Tock Seng Hospital in May, and the National University Health System and NTUC Health in August this year, reaching around 24,000 workers.