Our people are the most critical assets in our bid to connect the world. We invest in a range of training and talent recruitment programmes as well as activities to boost the well-being of our staff. We also embrace diversity and promote a collaborative work environment.
We believe that our staff should be equipped with skills needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving industry. In FY 2017, we invested S$25 million and 665,000 hours in staff training in Singapore and Australia.
Through the Singtel Cyber Cadet Scholarship Programme, Singtel Undergraduate Scholarship, Management Associate Programme and SHINE Internship Programme, we are enlarging our pool of young talent to drive growth in the emerging areas of cyber security, smart cities and data analytics.
We also launched the Cyber Security Associates and Technologists Programme with the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to meet the growing need for cyber security talent. Targeted at new graduates to mid-career ICT professionals, the initiative aims to develop the right skillsets for cyber security positions. To date, the programme has trained 15 employees and signed on 10 fresh graduates and 24 mid-career ICT specialists.
In the same light, Optus has also inked a strategic partnership with Macquarie University, where we are a sponsor of the Macquarie University Cyber Hub. The Cyber Hub will conduct short courses for Optus employees and provide a ready graduate pool for talent recruitment.
Our robust talent review process identifies talents with strong potential in the early stages of their careers to accelerate their development.
To grow our talent across the region and give them ample opportunities to develop leadership skills, we have flagship programmes such as Regional Leadership in Action and Game for Global Growth. These programmes are regularly reviewed to align with the latest industry trends.
In support of the Singapore government’s national SkillsFuture movement to encourage lifelong learning, we organised a roadshow aimed at encouraging employees to utilise their SkillsFuture credits. The two-day event saw over 2,000 registered learning places. We also held a technology fair to equip our staff with knowledge of emerging technologies such as cyber security, cloud, smart cities and analytics.
We continued to organise our popular annual training event, the Learning Fiesta, which gives our employees access to new business showcases and a series of short courses and activities that focused on learning skillsets relevant to current and future work. This year, we offered more than 27,000 learning places for our staff across the Group.
We believe that workforce diversity helps us to build and sustain our competitive advantage, and fosters innovative thinking and creative solutions to business challenges.
We have good female representation in middle and upper management within Singtel and are working to improve the representation in Optus. We implemented new recruitment standards for middle management roles, where at least one female candidate has to be shortlisted and at least one female interviewer included in the recruitment process. We also created a gender diversity plan for Optus Networks to better understand the working experience and motivation of female employees there.
Singtel provides all employees with free annual health screenings, chronic disease management counselling and Work Life Coaching programmes.
We also work closely with the Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore (UTES) and the Employee Partnership in Australia to ensure that the interests and well-being of our employees are met. Our long-standing relationship with UTES was recognised at the May Day Awards 2016, where our Group CEO was presented with the Medal of Commendation (Gold) for being proactive in adopting policies that improve the lives and working conditions of Singtel staff.
