Meet the illiterate granny who’s picked up digital skills at 73

What might a septuagenarian chat with their grandchild about? School? Daily news? Or that perennial favourite which begins with “when I was young…”

For Mdm Ng Lan Eng, it’s none of the above. Instead, she regales her grandson, 28, with updates on her milestones handling a new radio frequency identification technology (RFID) – at age 73.

The grandmother of four works at Raffles Hotel Singapore as a senior housekeeping attendant in the laundry department.

Becoming proficient at navigating English-language software despite being illiterate makes her achievement even more stunning.

“I don’t know what the words mean, so at first I was afraid I would make a mistake and ruin things,” she says in Mandarin. “But I was determined to learn the system. I’d always be observing how others used it, asking for help, and trying things out on my own.”

In recognition of her ability to adapt, innovate and improve workplace productivity, Mdm Ng has been conferred several awards in past years, including the NTUC May Day Model Worker Award 2022. 

She was nominated by Raffles Hotel after receiving the organisation’s own Annual Raffles Award, which is an internal recognition programme.

“What impresses me most about Lan Eng is her positive attitude and enthusiasm to learn and perform new tasks even at her age,” says her supervisor, laundry manager You Mei Yan, 48.

“She truly embraces the concept of lifelong learning, especially in approaching technology which was something really new for her to tackle.” 

When Mdm Ng began working at Raffles Hotel in 1991 as a laundry attendant, her job was simple: to press guests’ clothing.

But now, her role spans both back-of-house and guest contact areas. She straddles two divisions: laundry and uniforms, spending her work day toggling between departments as needed.

“If any of the divisions is short-staffed, I can help,” says Mdm Ng. “With the upskilling, my job became smoother. I can help the company, and myself.”

Her typical morning begins at 7.30am with picking and issuing staff uniforms using an RFID conveyor system. The rest of the day is spent coordinating guest laundry requests and billing with the hotel’s butlers, and washing and ironing hotel linens using a combination of commercial machines and elbow grease.

The evolution of her job scope from a single task to a role that “requires a high level of functionality and coordination” is testimony to the efforts by the hotel to offer employees opportunities to upskill and reskill.

The hotel’s managing director Christian Westbeld, shares that employees regularly attend external training courses, ranging from technical knowledge and guest-centric skills, to emerging skill sets such as digitalisation and data analytics.

For example, as part of its digital transformation initiatives, the hotel introduced new systems, including the RFID conveyor system, in 2019. 

It then sent staff to be reskilled under Workforce Singapore’s Job Redesign Place-and-Train Programme in 2020, to navigate these systems and take on more meaningful roles.

“This, in turn, creates higher quality jobs and a heightened sense of job satisfaction amongst colleagues,” says Mr Westbeld, who is in his 40s.

Mdm Ng, for one, spent six months acquiring new skills – such as how to use the RFID system, which combines software and chips sewn into garments. This enables system users to set up staff profiles and assign staff to numbered uniforms tagged to their work identification card.

“I’d go to different departments to learn new tasks and shadow others,” Mdm Ng says of the programme. “Since young, I’ve always been curious about everything. When I see a new task, I want to find out more, and see if I can do it.”

For its upskilling initiatives, Raffles Hotel was a Gold award recipient at the 2022 SkillsFuture Employer Awards, which recognises organisations as outstanding employers that emphasise employees’ skills development.

“We believe the investment and efforts placed in our colleagues for their upskilling and overall development is an enriching and uplifting endeavour for them personally,” says Mr Westbeld.

“It increases their employability and thereby value in the industry.”

A year on from learning the ropes, Mdm Ng is an old hand at using the RFID software.

She’s even gone beyond expectations by committing the uniform numbers of most of the hotel’s 500 staff to memory.

This means she can largely recall on sight which staff are from which division, ensuring colleagues are issued the right uniforms quickly amid the morning changing room rush.

“I didn’t do it deliberately – it just came with time,” she says. But it certainly helps to have worked at the hotel for over three decades. “I have many friends here. Everyone is kind.”

Her husband is a retired odd-job labourer. But retirement is not on the cards for Mdm Ng; she intends to continue working and learning at the hotel for as long as she can.