• Between April to July, more than 900 individuals found jobs in tourism and some industry players are still hiring 
• Since April, more than 2,400 jobs, traineeships, company attachments and training opportunities have been made available
• Tourism companies are pivoting to new growth areas and creating a number of PMET roles

SINGAPORE — Despite tourism coming to a standstill, more than 900 people have taken up jobs in the industry between April and July, in roles such as conference and event planners, system analysts and marketing sales executives.

About 51 per cent of this group are aged 40 and above, and 87 per cent are mid-career individuals who took part in career conversion programmes for new hires or to learn new skills for new jobs.

Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo said on Monday (Sept 7) it was “interesting” that throughout this period, there was still hiring although the hiring demand in tourism was lower than before.

Mrs Teo was speaking to members of the media after a visit to Marina Bay Sands, where she toured its new hybrid broadcast studio and tradeshow prototypes — including exhibition booths, contactless registration kiosks and meeting pods — that showcased new event formats and business models.

In February, as part of the Covid-19 support measures for businesses and workers, Workforce Singapore rolled out two new reskilling programmes under the tourism sector.

Through the Job Redesign Place-and-Train Programme for the hotel industry and the Digital Marketing Reskilling Programme for Mice (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions), more than 1,400 workers across more than 100 hotels and tourism companies have been or are being retrained and redeployed into new and higher value-added roles, Mrs Teo revealed.

And under the Enhanced Training Support Package where employers in the tourism sector get funding should their workers get training to upskill and reskill, 28,000 training places have been filled.

Mrs Teo noted that in the last six months, businesses in tourism have been willing to make adjustments and seize new opportunities.

“For example, they saw an opportunity for work-from-hotel packages. Not everyone finds it easy to work from home. So there were people who wanted to work from hotels, and so they were able to pull together some packages.

“They found that domestic tour activities can continue, but in a different format. They also found that if we really eventually want to move towards events, we have to do it in a more hybrid fashion.”

Since April, more than 2,400 jobs, traineeships, company attachments and training opportunities have been made available in the tourism industry, and more than 220 companies in the tourism sector have been hiring, including companies such as Marina Bay Sands, Capella Hotel Singapore, Raffles Town Club and Seletar Country Club, she said.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, Marina Bay Sands said that it “continues to hire for diverse functions across the integrated resort”. In its upcoming recruitment exercise this month, it is looking to fill positions in the departments of food- and-beverage, housekeeping, public area department, security, and more.

On its job portal, vacancies for a logistics attendant, interior design manager, security officer, steward, cyber-threat responder, auditor and others were listed.

Over at The St Regis Singapore, IT executive roles are available. W Singapore at Sentosa Cove is looking to hire an assistant financial controller and director of operations, while JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach is looking to recruit a bell captain, director of food-and-beverage and an accountant.

Mrs Teo said that of the opportunities in jobs, traineeships and company attachments in the tourism industry, about 41 per cent are in PMET (professional, manager, executive and technician) roles such as conference and event planners, system analysts and marketing sales executives

While part of the hiring is to replace work pass holders who have left Singapore to go back to their home countries as well as Malaysian workers impeded from coming here by the country’s Movement Control Order, new job opportunities are also being created, because businesses are having to pivot, she added. 

“The businesses in these sectors are therefore looking at supplementing their existing capabilities, from within their own workforce, trying to bring in people with the relevant experience. And that is creating opportunities for people to come into the sector and a good number of these are PMET roles,” Mrs Teo said.

“This is quite an exciting development, something very counterintuitive. We wouldn't have thought that it was happening in this way, but (it is) in a very, very good way. And so, we'd really like to reach out to jobseekers.

“If, for any reason, you had thought that opportunities in tourism have dried up, it hasn't. Tourism has always been a part of Singapore's economic development story.”