A collective effort to help 500 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) transform their businesses through digitalisation by the end of next year was launched yesterday.
Under the SME Digital Reboot programme, NTUC's U SME network will identify these companies while UOB's innovation accelerator - The FinLab - will provide resources to help them draw up digitalisation plans.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic and NTUC's training arm LearningHub will provide training across five tracks, such as workflow automation and digital marketing.
The programme also includes an implementation phase with firms receiving guidance on ways to implement the newly learnt skills at the workplace.
A five-month-long pilot launched last year showed 40 companies, mostly SMEs, had benefited from such training.
While the programme is applicable to companies of all sizes, outreach efforts will focus on SMEs, which employ more than two-thirds of Singapore's workforce and contribute about half of the nation's gross domestic product.
A group that benefited from the pilot scheme is the Association of Employment Agencies Singapore (AEAS), which saw 30 members come on board.
Its president K. Jayaprema said many employment agencies, being traditional businesses, are resistant to digital transformation.
"Somebody has to handhold them and we want to keep bringing these initiatives to members so they can leverage them," she added.
Three of her company's staff - including two workers aged 65 and 71 - attended courses under the programme.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed yesterday at the launch by the four partners to support the programme.
Another MOU was inked between AEAS and NTUC U SME to help more of the industry association's members undergo digital transformation through the initiative.
NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng said Covid-19 brings new opportunities for SMEs that are willing to adapt to new possibilities.
"When SMEs succeed (in digital transformation)... they can create longer-term, sustainable businesses in Singapore, exploiting the best technology available and upping productivity.
"With all this in place, the interest of NTUC is to forge better wages, welfare and work prospects for workers in the digital age," added Mr Ng at the sidelines of the launch.
The labour chief observed two training sessions where participants learnt how to use robotic process automation software to collect data, and digital marketing and behaviour analytics tools to understand consumer preferences.
Mr Ooi Chee Kong, operations director of Jason Marine, has sent 12 of his staff for process and workflow automation and digital marketing courses.
The firm, which employs about 90 staff in Singapore, has eliminated around 90 per cent of its manual processes.
He said: "Staff continue to use what they learnt to link up all the digital tools that we have, and not to view them as individual platforms. They started to warm up to digital tools once they had a taste of them."
