A NEW course here will give unemployed white-collar workers a chance to acquire new skills for the growing meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (Mice) industry.

The first 14 students enrolled in the Professional Conversion Programme for Mice and events under the Workforce Skills Qualifications start their course today.

The course is part of the Government's Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience.

The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) signed the agreement with event organiser Pico Art International yesterday to jointly run the 12-month course.

The study and attachment programme retrains unemployed professionals, managers, executives and technicians for jobs in the Mice industry.

Each student needs to pay only $1,500 or 10 per cent of the course fees. The remaining $13,500 is paid for by the WDA, which also gives students a training stipend. They will also receive a Workforce Skills Qualification diploma upon graduation.

The full-time course will be conducted at the UNLV campus at the National Library for half a year, for students to gain theoretical knowledge before being attached to Pico Art to gain first-hand experience.

UNLV is known for its diploma programmes for adults in the Mice sector. This year's batch will get to help run events like the Formula One race and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings clinched by Pico.

Pico's managing director Jean Chia said that despite the downturn, the Mice industry is still doing well. Now is the perfect time to 'scout for and develop relevant potential talent' and to 'build up our manpower capability'.

Mr Edward Liu, president of the Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers, said that the demand for manpower has eased somewhat with the recession.

But, he said, there are companies which are still hiring and now is a good time to train new faces to prepare for the upturn.

LIM WEI CHEAN

This article was first published in The Straits Times.