SINGAPORE - At least 300 seniors will get free hands-on lessons to navigate cyberspace as part of a renewed tie-up between SPH Media Trust’s Chinese Media Group (CMG) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Under the initiative dubbed Youths Help Seniors Go Digital, students from the school’s Chinese media and communication course will provide one-to-one assistance to elderly readers of Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.
These workshops are expected to teach skills in areas that include cyber security and basic e-commerce.
The three-year memorandum of understanding will have at least 12 of such workshops organised annually, CMG said at the signing of the agreement on Monday (Jan 3) at SPH Media Trust’s building in Toa Payoh.
This is the second agreement signed between the organisations, with the first memorandum of understanding inked in 2018.
Each digital workshop is open to at least 25 seniors, subject to prevailing Covid-19 measures.
The sessions will involve about 150 students from the Chinese media and communication course, with the possibility of expanding to about 2,000 students from the school to cater to demand, said Ms Lynn Fong, the director of Ngee Ann Poly’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The sessions will be held at the SPH Media Trust’s building in Toa Payoh, said CMG managing editor Loh Woon Yen.
The public can also expect continuing education and training programmes for business professionals jointly developed by the school and CMG’s adult learning platform Han Culture and Education.
In particular, these programmes will cover Chinese content production, social media and business culture for young adults in media and non-media fields.
The school’s Chinese media and communication students will also be involved in the promotion and content creation of a new CMG media platform targeted at those aged between 18 and 25.
The platform is scheduled to be launched in the first half of this year.
Said Ms Fong: “After I left school, I didn’t touch the Chinese language so you can see me struggling with Chinese. So I think this platform will encourage younger adults to keep in touch with the Chinese language and culture... And there is no one better than younger people to tell others that Chinese is cool.”
Ms Loh added: “By providing relevant content in Chinese, we hope to encourage younger Singaporeans to continue to use the Chinese language and to stay in touch not just with the culture but also with the greater world.”
Citing the rise of China, Ms Loh noted that bilingualism is a key advantage in helping Singapore remain competitive in the world.
The agreement will also deepen industry experience for students in the Chinese media and communication as well as the Chinese studies programmes.
This includes learning journeys and CMG scholarships for two outstanding third-year Chinese media and communication students.
More details about how to sign up for the digital skills workshops will be released later this year in Lianhe Zaobao.
