By Amelia Tan

SINGAPORE'S biggest childcare chain NTUC First Campus just got bigger.

The group is embarking on its biggest expansion and rebranding exercise since opening 32 years ago.

It will spend about $40 million to $50 million over the next three years to double the size of its stable of centres and staff strength, invest in professional development courses and scholarships for its teachers and revamp its image.

While most of the money will come from the coffers of the chain's umbrella body, the NTUC, First Campus chief executive Chan Tee Seng said the impetus for the plans came from the Government's push to make childcare services more accessible and affordable.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at last year's National Day Rally that the Government will increase the subsidies per child, increase the quality of care at the centres and increase the number of places. The plan is to have a total of about 1,000 childcare centres by 2013, up from the 750 now.

Mr Chan said most of the money will go towards building new centres and employing more teachers.

The chain now has 55 centres, but will open 10 new ones by the end of the year.

It operates two types of centres - most are situated at HDB void decks, with a few more upmarket ones scattered around community clubs, workplaces and within landed estates. All offer full-day programmes for children aged between 18 months and six years.

By the end of next year, it will build another 50 centres. These, plus the 10 to be opened later this year, will provide an additional 6,000 places for children.

It will also have to employ 700 more teachers by the end of next year, taking its teaching staff strength to 1,400.

In his first in-depth interview since joining NTUC First Campus in January, Mr Chan said revamping the chain's image is also top on his priority list.

For years, the chain's selling point has been its affordable fees and the convenient location of its centres.

But its image has taken a beating in recent years as more parents find paying close to $1,000 a month to send their children to private centres more acceptable.

The average fee at My First Skool - the centres situated at HDB void decks - is currently $520, well below the national median for fees at childcare centres, which is $630 a month.

After subsidies, parents whose children are in My First Skool can pay as little as $220 a month.

Mr Chan said: 'I know of some parents who won't send their children to centres if they don't charge about $1,200. But we know as insiders that expensive fees do not guarantee good services.'

The chain hopes to change the perception that the quality of its services is lower than other more expensive centres by training teachers to meet and sell the centres' services to prospective parents.

'We have been underselling ourselves all this while,' said Mr Chan. 'I think this is because our teachers think of themselves primarily as educators. They do not see the need to meet parents to sell NTUC First Campus to them.

'But a lot of the preschool business deals with letting parents know what the centres can provide and making them feel comfortable with sending their children to us.'

Civil servant Alex Tan said he and his wife, a social worker, have heard of NTUC First Campus and the affordable fees it charges, but never thought of sending their five-year-old daughter there.

For the past three years, she has been attending a childcare centre which charges about $700 a month before subsidies.

Mr Tan, 33, said: 'Low fees will not win parents over because we don't mind spending more for our children.

'I decided to send my daughter to this centre even though fees are not cheap because I spoke to the teachers, and they explained to me clearly the curriculum and how my daughter will be taken care of.

'I felt I could trust my daughter with them.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.