Representatives from 18 preschools attended an Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Sector Forum held in KLCII’s Serangoon Campus on 13 July, 2017 presented by the Association of Early Childhood and Training Services (ASSETS).

The forum was designed to share with ECCE operators the various initiatives of ASSETS, as well as provide an opportunity for members to keep abreast of new developments, especially in human resource,  in the sector.  KLCII provided the facilities and support services for the event, a role it has been increasingly developing recently as part of  its ECCE sector support portfolio.

The forum’s first segment covered various SMART solution projects initiated by ASSETS and supported by government grants to help preschools save costs and improve their operations. These include a Zonal Bus Project to help match parents with school bus operators and a Bulk Purchasing Project for commonly used school resources.   Ms Jo Ann Kua from Kinderland talked about the use of UV lights for sanitising preschool classrooms and equipment.

Mr Robert Leong giving a brief on new initiatives

The next segment of the forum focused on human resource challenges in the EC sector.  Ms Claire Huang, Senior Manager, Workforce Singapore (WSG) gave a presentation on  WSG schemes for staff recruitment and retention ;  Ms Jessica Aow, Consultant from EON Consulting, took the participants through “A re-look at Human Capital Development”; Ms Alice Lee, Senior Consultant, Capelle Consulting, shared details on the “4Rs of Employee Engagement”, Ms Sharon Quek, Project Manager from ASSETS, introduced Project Joy, a WSG scheme to help preschools develop best practices in HR. Ms Eileen Ong from the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) introduced the “P-max scheme for newly-hired PMET staff in preschools”.

Consultants from EON Consulting and Capelle Consulting

At the end of the session, participants witnessed the signing ceremony for the appointment of Gourmetz as one of the official caterers to provide centralised meal catering services to childcare centres in Singapore.  The agreement was signed by Mr Robert Leong, President of ASSETS, and Mr Desmond Chin, Managing Director of Gourmetz Pte Ltd.

Gourmetz is the second of two official caterers appointed by ASSETS for its Centralised Meal Catering initiative  under the Lean Enterprise Development Productivity Project. The other official caterer is SATS, which was appointed in mid-August last year.

Formed in 2012, ASSETS’ mission is  “To Advocate Quality and Excellence in the Education of Young Children and Early Childhood Teacher Training”.  Its scope includes providing a forum for members to exchange ideas and explore areas for co-operation; assisting members in improving the quality and standards of their centres and business by providing coordination and support, and related training programmes and courses; and conducting research and development in early childhood education skills, methods and techniques.