IT IS back to school for 188 businessmen who are keen to pick up the skills needed to lead a team and manage their own companies.

 

They will be taking part in Spring Singapore's Business Leaders Initiative, which allows them to enrol in undergraduate, postgraduate and executive development courses.

 

The programme has three tiers. At the top is the Advanced Management Programme, which offers customised executive development courses and executive MBAs from universities in Singapore.

 

This year, 127 chief executive officers and senior management executives have signed up for these courses, Spring said in a statement.

 

Spring has also awarded 16 mid-level executives from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the Management Development Scholarship. This allows them to take postgraduate management programmes either part-time or full-time.

 

This will help SMEs groom managers for leadership positions in the future, Spring said.

 

At the third tier, 45 aspiring entrepreneurs have been given the Executive Development Scholarship to study for an undergraduate degree in one of Singapore's three universities.

 

More interest is coming in for this scholarship, said Spring. It received more than 500 applications this year, four times more than last year.

 

Among the new batch of scholarship recipients is Ms Janice Tan, 21, who runs the Zsofi Tapas Bar in Little India and is the creative director of Scribblesmates, an online business selling printed designer journals.

 

Her goal is to start an international fine arts consultancy firm using the entrepreneurial skills learnt from this scholarship.

 

Spring chairman Philip Yeo said the agency is most encouraged to see a trend of young graduates eager to join SMEs and inject new management ideas into family-owned businesses.

 

'Singapore needs a constant pipeline of business leaders at all levels who can lead their companies to new markets, develop new products and seize new business opportunities,' he said.

 

 

 

LAUNCHED last year, Spring Singapore's $60 million Business Leaders Initiative aims to train 1,000 SME bosses and senior executives, and groom another 500 entrepreneurs to be future business leaders.

 

Under the Advanced Management Programme for chief executives and senior executives, Spring subsidises up to 70 per cent of course fees so executives pay from $600 for a short development course to $118,750 for an overseas postgraduate programme.

 

Promising executives can apply for a Management Development Scholarship, which pays for up to 70 per cent of the expenses for a full-time course and up to 90 per cent for a part-time one.

 

Undergraduate students can try for an Executive Development Scholarship. It covers up to four years of expenses, including tuition and allowance.