The modules, launched by the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), vary from about five to 15 minutes long, and cover a range of functional skills and knowledge specific to industry or sector.
“To ensure the growth of Singapore’s F&B industry, e2i is pleased to work closely with SFFA (Speciality & Fine Food Asia) and RPB (Restaurant Pub Bar) Asia to provide a dedicated platform for industry players to learn from each other, identify new ways of doing things and create opportunities for working partnerships,” said Gilbert Tan, CEO of e2i.
“We also look forward to forming partnerships with the industry players here today as well to raise their training capabilities via skills upgrading access and opportunities for their workers.”
“In the face of a manpower crunch in a manpower-reliant industry, increasing productivity through digitalisation and innovation business solutions is one key way to stay at the forefront of the food and beverage industry,” said NTUC Secretary-General and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ng Chee Meng.
He added that food and beverage is a significant industry in Singapore worth almost S$4bn.
How ULeap helps
The ULeap app is available on both Google Play for Android and the Apple App Store for iPhone, as well as on the e2i website.
ULeap is essentially a mobile learning platform, with short multimedia content on various topics contributed by knowledge partners, including industry and educational establishments.
According to Tan, instead of the typical three-to-six-month time frame required for the development of new courses, the knowledge partners can harness the input and exchange from the various learning communities to crowdsource, curate and construct bite-sized lessons to meet the current industry or user demands.
A range of F&B topics
Just some of the courses related to the industry are ‘Understanding Food Labels’ by Nanyang Polytechnic and ‘Organic Farming’ by Republic Polytechnic, both supported by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation Standards Development Organisation (SMF-SDO) and ‘Engaging F&B Customers on Social Media’ by Nanyang Polytechnic.
‘Understanding Food Labels’, for instance, covers sub-topics or modules such as the basic requirements of a food label, food labels and advertisements, additional labelling requirements, and the addition of nutrition claims and health claims.
All of the courses and discussions are free to access.