Singtel Group employees to be equipped with AI skills

Source: Singtel. The MoU was signed during the launch of its annual month-long BIG Learning Fiesta, which offers talks and workshops to support the professional and personal development of all employees across the organisation. From left: Yuen Kuan Moon, Group CEO, Singtel; Ng Tian Chong, CEO, Singtel Singapore; Ng Kuo Pin, CEO, NCS; Thuvinder Singh S/O Bachan Singh, General Secretary, UTES; Mohamed Latiff Bin Othman, President, UTES; Desmond Choo, Singapore Minister of State for Defence, and Executive Secretary, UTES. 

The Singtel Group has renewed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on its Company Training Committee (CTC) with the Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore (UTES), reinforcing its longstanding commitment to workforce transformation.

This latest initiative places AI at the heart of the group’s efforts to drive business growth and enhance customer experiences with a strategic push to equip all employees with knowledge and capabilities in AI.

The MoU builds on earlier efforts between the Singtel Group and UTES as part of the CTC. This includes a S$45 M investment in 2019 to deepen the digital skills of Singtel Group employees through the introduction of a people development framework, dubbed the ACT initiative. 

Specifically, the refreshed MoU will focus on accelerating employee upskilling to build AI, emerging tech, sustainability and power skills, empowering employees in co-creating their own learning pathways through a skills-first approach, and transforming employee roles to ensure a future-ready workforce.

In 2022, Singtel Group announced a boosted, sustained annual investment of S$20 M to intensify employee training efforts and also launched Singtel 8George – a learning academy for employees across all levels to develop relevant skills amid rapid technological change.

The renewed MoU complements ongoing initiatives to scale AI adoption and implementation across the organisation. To date, some 13,000 or 95% of Singtel Group employees in Singapore have undergone a comprehensive programme to train them with foundational AI knowledge in areas such as generative AI, data analytics and responsible AI use. 

Singtel aims for all Singapore-based employees to be AI-trained, with 3,000 as AI practitioners and 300 as AI specialists. This is in line with Singapore’s updated National AI Strategy, which details plans to train 15,000 AI practitioners to advance AI development and innovation.

Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said: “AI is transforming the way we live and work, and even redefining what jobs will look like in the future. That’s why we’re moving just as fast to prepare our people for this change. This MoU reflects our unwavering commitment to helping everyone at Singtel to learn, grow and thrive in an age of accelerated change.

"To be truly AI-ready, we’re putting skills first, empowering our people to build the critical capabilities they need, with technology as their trusted co-pilot. By learning how to make the most of AI, our people will be able to seize new opportunities with confidence, make smarter decisions and play a leading role in driving sustainable growth for the business and for themselves.”

The Singtel Group has defined its AI strategy around the roles of adopter, builder-provider and enabler of AI through its connectivity, digital infrastructure and digital services businesses. This will translate into AI-related career paths within the group including data centre-related career opportunities with data centre operator Nxera, which recently held its inaugural Sustainable AI Data Centre Career Day with industry partners.