Government support for full-time sportsmen after sports

Question

Mr Teo Ser Luck: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth with the completion of another Southeast Asian Games and ASEAN Para Games, how does the Ministry support the post-Games and post-sports career plans of athletes especially for those who went into full-time training to represent Singapore for these Games.

Response

1. Minister Grace Fu: The Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) seeks to provide comprehensive support to our Team Singapore athletes, through financial grants, training and coaching, sports medicine, as well as opportunities to prepare for a career after they retire from high performance sports.

2. To prepare our athletes early for a career after sports, SSI works closely with corporate partners under the spexBusiness Network to offer our athletes career development opportunities, ranging from internships and apprenticeships, part-time positions, to permanent positions with flexible work arrangements. The Network also organises career-readiness workshops to guide our athletes, as well as networking opportunities with the corporate partners. More than 150 Team Singapore athletes have benefitted since its inception in 2013. They include former national athletes, such as shuttler Derek Wong who has made a successful transition to a post-sport career with Deloitte, and current national athletes, such as netballer Charmaine Soh who is also with Deloitte, as well as archer Christina Gunawan and CP footballer Khairul Anwar who are employed with other spexBusiness partners such as KPMG and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

3. Today, the spexBusiness Network comprises more than 50 companies across 25 industries. I would like to encourage more companies and employers to step forward to support our athletes, so that they can focus on doing their best for Singapore, whilst staying abreast in terms of their career development. With more companies on board, we are able to support more athletes in their pursuit of sporting excellence.

4. Besides the spexBusiness Network, there are also opportunities for athletes to pursue a career in their respective sports and continue to contribute to the sports' development after they have retired from competition. Our increased funding support over the years for the development of sport – from the learn-to-play entry level to the high performance level – has enlarged the ecosystems of many sports. This has created more employment opportunities for National Athletes to work in the areas that they are passionate about, and pass down their experience to the younger generation of athletes. Many of our former national athletes have led the way, such as former national swimmer Gary Tan, who is now the Head Coach of the National Training Centre for swimming, and former national shuttler Jiang Yanmei, who is now the Technical Manager of the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) and Principal of the SBA Badminton Academy @ ActiveSG