by Caryl Teh
COVID-19 changed daily life for us. Within one day, schools, office buildings, shopping malls and streets went from bustling with people, to eerily deserted. And with three letters, M-C-O, we found ourselves “domesticated”, confined to our homes. Some of us were fortunate to have work to keep our mind occupied, but our fellow colleagues at YTL Construction couldn’t work. It would have been easy to let time slip away and spiral into a depressed, mechanical repetition of clicking “refresh” for the latest news updates. But YTL Construction was on a mission – a mission to come out of the MCO as a better version of themselves than when the MCO began. How were they going to do this? Enter the YTL Learning Academy.
- When did the YTL Learning Academy happen?
30th March to 28th April
- What was the YTL Learning Academy’s goals?
(1) To give employees a platform to continue learning, growing and connecting with each other over the MCO period.
(2) To encourage continual upskilling among staff.
- What did it entail?
A series of free online training workshops for all SPYTL staff during the MCO.
Workshops were conducted twice daily, every Monday to Friday.
- What type of workshops were conducted?
An 11am technical workshop focused on professional skills like engineering and construction, and a more fun 5pm session that encouraged healthy lifestyle choices. By the end of the soft launch, YTL Learning Academy had conducted 58 sessions!
- How did people know what topic was being covered and when?
At the start of each week, the organising committee sent out an email containing the workshop schedule for the week with links that made it as easy as possible to participate.
- QC: How did the organising committee ensure the effectiveness of the YTL Learning Academy?
At the end of the first 2 weeks, they sent out a feedback survey to ask employees what types of workshops they would like to experience. Based on their responses, the committee planned the next set of workshops.
- Capacity logistics: was there a limit to how many people could attend a workshop?
Of the 1500+ employees who were invited, each workshop unfortunately had a maximum capacity of 250 people per session (as permitted by Google Hangouts).
As with any initiative, the most nerve-wracking part is whether people will respond or not. So how did the YTL Learning Academy fare? It was a huge success! Technical workshops were at maximum capacity almost every time! Organisers sometimes had to start a second Google Hangouts session just to accommodate the enthusiastic response.
But beyond upskilling as individuals from industry experts, perhaps the Academy’s greatest success was being a platform for colleagues to teach what they’ve learned to each other – upskilling in life evaluation tools from physical and mental health, to communicating with confidence. Needless to say, YTL Construction succeeded in their mission, emerging from the MCO as individuals who were better equipped than when the MCO first began, in both their professional and personal lives.
“Perfect Roast Chicken with Chef Yeen” by Yeoh Keong Yeen
“Baking Pavlova with Love” by Aishah Arina Aziz
“A Healthy Balanced Diet” by Ching Yi Lee (Co-founder of Amazin’ Graze)
“Mental Health Awareness” by Michael Lee
“Are You In Love With Your Job” by Dato Seri Azmi Aziz
“Trackwork Construction Part 1 (Bottom & Top Ballasting, Sleeper Laying)” by Siti Zarini
“Sending The Right Message – A Media Perspective” by Charles Mohan (TV Presenter, ntv7)
Psst! We have some exciting news in the works…
During the MCO, the YTL Learning Academy was conducted for only YTL Construction personnel. But because it was such a huge success, there are ongoing discussions of making the programme more robust and opening it up to the whole YTL family. The business plan is still in the works because such training will require professional certification. So make sure to follow our stories for updates on this exciting addition to your toolkit.
Let’s share our wealth of knowledge and skills so that we can grow stronger together and as YTL Construction would say, “work hard, play harder”.
