Choa Chu Kang residents pick up vocational and practical skills

This article is more than 12 months old

Jul 23, 2018 06:00 am

Choa Chu Kang residents yesterday learnt skills such as sports massage, infant care, flower arranging and plumbing.

These were some of the booths set up at Keat Hong Community Club, as part of South West Community Development Council's (CDC) first SkillsFuture Festival. This heartland-based event aims to ignite residents' interest in vocational and practical skills either for personal use or employment.

More than 400 training and career opportunities were showcased at the festival which was attended by over 900 people.

It was held by South West CDC, in collaboration with the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore.

Mr Gilbert Tan, chief executive officer of e2i, said: "We must constantly adapt and upgrade ourselves in terms of knowledge and skills to stay relevant in a fast-evolving environment. Vocational skills learning would then become not a want, but a need."

Resident Shirley Chong, 59, who works in data entry, said: "I want to learn culinary skills both as a personal thing and as a potential job... I am an older employee, and I might not always be with my company. If I can bake or cook, I might be able to sell my products." - SUE-ANN TAN