Singapore Airlines offers training spots to outside businesses as international flights still grounded

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has created a new arm that will offer training programmes in service excellence, operational excellence, organisational innovation, and digital transformation to external businesses and organisations. The Singapore Airlines Academy will leverage on the wide range of globally recognised skills and competencies that exists within SIA, which have enabled the airline to establish a pre-eminent position in a highly competitive industry. It will also tap on the decades of experience that has been accumulated by SIA staff. Airlines like Singapore Air have had to ground thousands of planes. (PHOTO: Steve Strike/Outback Photographics) The academy will be able to customise training packages to meet the requirements of individual companies and organisations. Courses that will be offered include Service Excellence and Leadership, Handling Challenging Customers, and Innovation Programme and Playbook. They will be conducted by SIA trainers, who are certified instructors and facilitators with practical front-line experience. SIA began offering external courses in September 2020, when it collaborated on a customised training programme with Singapore-based Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) for its patient care officers. The three-day course includes topics such as effective interpersonal communication, customer handling, and learning how to exemplify values such as empathy, warmth and care. Vanessa Ng, Singapore Airlines senior vice p for Human Resources, said: “SIA receives many requests from organisations wanting to know how we have attained our reputation for industry-leading service and operational excellence, and to better understand how we achieved our successful digital transformation. Our focus on people development and investment in training has been key to achieving these world-class standards. We are happy to share our competencies by offering specialised training programmes to external organisations. This would also allow us to contribute to Singapore’s national goal of reskilling and upskilling the country’s workforce. The Singapore Airlines Academy is also a strategic move for the SIA Group, and has the potential to add a new source of revenue in the coming years.” In January and February, Changi Airport in Singapore was full of passengers. Now a lone student waits to say goodbye to a friend in a nearly deserted departure hall. (PHOTO: Matt Driskill) Singapore Airlines announced in September that it was cutting at least 4,300 positions across its group airlines because of the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has virtually shut down international travel that particularly affects the airline because it has no domestic traffic to fall back on. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Matt Driskill at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Head of Sales Kay Rolland at [email protected]