Mentorship, training help musician switch to new career in food industry

Production supervisor Abdul Razak Bajuri has been in the food industry for only three years, but he already oversees a team of around 10 staff to make items such as turkey ham and roast beef.

The former professional musician was helped by his mentor, who showed him the ropes, and picked up skills through training courses in basic hygiene and halal certification.

"I had to learn how to handle the machines and also to manage staff - we have a huge workplace and staff are not just working in one place but also moving around," said Mr Razak, 48.

He started out as a production coordinator at Mewahsedap, the halal food arm of Chang Cheng Group, and was promoted to his current role at the unit last March.

National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary-general Chee Hong Tat said in Parliament yesterday that Chang Cheng is an example of a company that has systematically grown its capabilities by deploying technology, improving business processes, and training workers.

Chang Cheng owns more than 160 food outlets in Singapore, with brands such as Chang Cheng Chinese Vegetables Rice and Rong Kee Roasted Delights.

The company joined the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU) in March 2020 and signed a memorandum of understanding with the union to set up its company training committee in July that year.

The NTUC company training committee model - introduced in 2019 - brings unions and employers together to develop concrete firm-level transformation plans, including the relevant training needed, and aims to improve workers' wages, welfare and prospects.

The Government is setting aside about $100 million in this year's Budget for NTUC to scale up company training committees, partly through a new grant to help firms implement their transformation plans.

Such committees comprise representatives from a company's management as well as union leaders. Their job is to review current training plans, identify skill gaps, plan for reskilling and career progression for workers, and develop and implement new training programmes.

Chang Cheng worked with the NTUC Industry Training and Transformation team and FDAWU to embark on an operation and technology road map in 2020. This allowed it to identify key areas of focus, such as recruiting and upskilling workers, and improving automation.

Chang Cheng has sent more than 40 workers for upskilling in areas such as change management, data appreciation and communication skills at NTUC LearningHub. It aims to train all its 990 workers in areas like food and beverage technologies, and to build an in-house pool of mentors.

It has also introduced an enterprise resource planning system, which monitors real-time sales of dishes and allows the company to reduce wastage and procure ingredients more efficiently.

Mr Razak plans to take up more courses in leadership and administration. He had switched industries as he wanted a change of pace, and found that his technology skills from his days of editing music were useful in his current work.

"Managing machines and programming came naturally for me, even though different machines have their own ways of working. It was much more manageable and predictable," said the former guitarist and session musician.