Two new initiatives and 39 companies boost support for One Team Singapore

Two new initiatives and 39 companies boost support for One Team Singapore

Nine new corporate partners have joined the Sports Excellence Business (spexBusiness), bringing the total to 39 companies from 22 diverse industries.

Three new Institutes of Higher Learning have also signed up to be part of the Sports Excellence Education (spexEducation) scheme, joining seven other academic institutions to offer athlete life coaching and academic flexibility to our student athletes.

Since the launch of both initiatives in November 2013, almost 500 Team Singapore athletes have directly benefited, including 92 athletes who had found employment opportunities with our partner companies.

Launch of the spexBusiness Application

Local business start-up Jobook Singapore is one of the nine new corporate partners and they will be collaborating with the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) to develop the spexBusiness Application which will help to streamline and automate the start-to-end process of job application and matching of athletes with all spexBusiness partners.

Founder & CEO of Jobook Singapore, Mr Raniel Lee said: “Team Singapore athletes are role models for the youths when they are growing up as they are the real life superheroes. Our partnership with the Singapore Sports Institute allows athletes to achieve their career goals by connecting them to the right job opportunities through the spexBusiness Application. Through this partnership, we are able to achieve our common goals through the synergy of collective strengths to inspire and empower athletes to achieve their fullest potential.”

Launch of SSI-e2i Career Coaching Network

The SSI-e2i Career Coaching Network was also launched, with the aim of providing quality career services to Team Singapore athletes in the areas of career coaching and providing key insights of specific sectors which will enable our athletes to make better career choices.

Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) is an initiative of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and through their extensive network of partners, offers hiring, training and productivity solutions to businesses.

Two-time Olympian shuttler Derek Wong is now a full-time Audit Junior Associate with professional services firm, Deloitte. Wong, who recently retired from competitive badminton, had started working as a research analyst on a contract basis with Deloitte in 2014 while continuing to represent Singapore at the highest levels. He said, “The spexBusiness initiative has helped me to gain invaluable insights into the corporate world whilst training as a full-time athlete. Knowing that companies are receptive towards providing support, athletes can be assured to bring 100% into the sporting field without having to worry over our future career plans.”

Three current spexBusiness partners, adidas, Deloitte and OSIM International had contributed beyond just providing jobs to athletes in the last two years through the sponsorship of sporting events and Team Singapore initiatives.

Having experienced first-hand the power of sport, these three companies have now pledged a sum of $70,000 to contribute to support the high performance development of Team Singapore athletes.

Said Tan Yen Yen, Chairman of the spexBusiness Advisory Board, “Through spexBusiness, Corporate Singapore has shown that they are fully part of One Team Singapore. In the space of three years, we have grown from seven to 39 companies and to date, more than 90 athletes have benefited from it. Our vision for spexBusiness was to forge stronger and more sustainable relationships between Corporate Singapore and our athletes and I’m delighted to see some of our corporate partners stepping forward to do more to support our athletes in their pursuit of sporting excellence.”