Hospitality school Shatec cuts jobs amid corporate downsizing
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Shatec has retrenched 42 staff while it reviews its long-term plans.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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- Shatec, a hospitality school, is cutting back operations, having retrenched 42 staff due to commercial viability concerns, effective 1 April 2025.
- Shatec will focus on continuing education while teaching the last pre-employment training students until March 2026, moving away from pre-employment training.
- Despite changes, Shatec's legacy as a training ground with 40,000 alumni and restaurants like Petals and Rosette is fondly remembered by many.
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SINGAPORE – Uncertainty surrounds the future of hospitality training school Shatec after 42 staff members were retrenched on July 3.
The layoffs come after the school closed its training restaurant,The Sapling
Shatec declined to respond to The Straits Times queries about the roles of staff who have been dismissed or the remaining strength of its workforce.
The Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU) said it has been working with Shatec to assist affected staff and secure fair compensation packages in line with its collective agreement with the school.
The union is also connecting workers to NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute for job-matching services, career coaching and skills upgrading advice.
The job cuts announced on July 3 follow a “business containment exercise” that involved a “scaling down of operations while reviewing its long-term plans”, said Shatec and the FDAWU in a joint statement.
“This decision... will allow Shatec to strategise its future direction,” the July 3 statement added.
Shatec said it will continue to run its continuing education and training (CET) programmes, while focusing on teaching the last batch of its pre-employment training (PET) students, a process that will extend into early 2026.
The Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), which represents 167 Singapore hotel members, said in August 2024 that Shatec would move from PET to focus mainly on CET.
The school received its last intake of PET students in September 2024.
Shatec chairman Loh Lik Peng said on July 4 that it is still in the “early stages” of reviewing its long-term plans, which includes the sale of its building.
“As the review is still ongoing, we are unable to provide further comments,” he added.
Shatec was launched by the SHA in 1983, when a solid pipeline of professionals was needed to support Singapore’s growing popularity as a travel destination.
The school, which provides courses in Singapore and across the Asia-Pacific region, has trained around 40,000 people in the hospitality sector over the years.
A LinkedIn user who studied at Shatec said he often reminisces about dining at training restaurants such as Petals and Rosette.
He wrote on July 2: “The quality of service depended on your luck and the food was hit and miss. They were training restaurants helmed by Shatec trainees, after all. But there was a charm about it.”
Another LinkedIn user wrote that doing a course at Shatec was the dream of people looking to enter the hospitality sector.
“I’ve also dined at their student-run restaurants, where learners cooked, served and practised their craft with pride and heart. You could taste the effort, feel the service,” she added.
Affected union members and staff can call FDAWU on 6737-6088 during working hours or e-mail fdawu@ntuc.org.sg
