SINGAPORE — Sport Singapore (SportSG) introduced a round of measures aimed at helping members of the sports community here whose livelihoods have been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, including temporary job placements and training opportunities. 

These were announced by SportSG chief executive officer Lim Teck Yin during a media briefing on Monday (March 30), conducted via video conference. 

The measures followed last week's announcement that all sporting events until at least end-April would be cancelled. 

More than 500 job opportunities and more than 5,000 training places will be provided between now and the end of the year by the national sports agency. 

Of these, more than 200 jobs are aimed at meeting the additional manpower needs at ActiveSG Sport Centres, as well as other academies and clubs, for the implementation of new measures aimed at stopping the spread of Covid-19 as well as visitor engagement. 

More than 300 temporary positions will be for jobs such as virtual fitness content creators and media producers, sport curriculum developers and sport coaches.

SportSG is also partnering other organisations to offer jobs to affected individuals, with job opportunity listings to be progressively rolled out on the Workforce Singapore (WSG), SGUnited and SportSG job portals.

Together with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and WSG, the sports agency’s two training arms — ActiveSG Training Centre and CoachSG — will also offer courses ranging from sports science to digital marketing, with SkillsFuture funding. 

Mr Lim also announced plans for a “virtual sports super centre” through a platform dubbed ActiveSG Circle, which would allow users to access a variety of free and paid online courses and training programmes, as well as other content. 

“New technology will be deployed, and new capabilities will be built as we move to bridge physical and virtual sporting experiences,” said Mr Lim, noting the agency had already been employing digitalisation for several years. 

SportSG will also offer grants and subsidies to those in the sports sector who are able to come up with creative ideas — such as a virtual run or digital cycling race — for its annual GetActive! Singapore event, held in conjunction with National Day. 

Noting Covid-19 had disrupted individuals and businesses within the sporting fraternity, Mr Lim said the outbreak provided the sector an opportunity to employ technology and re-imagine its traditional business models. 

“This is the time for sporting Singapore to come together to re-imagine how we can transform our industry to encourage and engage all in Singapore to live a healthy and fit lifestyle — one that would serve us well in this time and beyond,” he said. CNA

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