PRESS RELEASE (Singapore, 20 October 2012)
The Beauty, Hair, Spa and Wellness industry has been undergoing tremendous changes and challenges in these recent years. The Spa & Wellness Association Singapore has been working tirelessly on reviving consumer’s confidence brought about by the closure of Beauty, Hair, Spa and Wellness establishments. In addition to these, the recent changes in foreign workers’ policy has also brought forth more hardships as many establishments have found it increasingly difficult to find skilled workers, in particular, Singaporeans who are willing to fill these increasing demands.
The services delivered by the various industry sectors are fundamentally based on the power of the human touch and human interaction. As such, people are at the heart of this industry, where manpower is critical to the delivery of the services.
To address these issues, the committee has decided to embark on this industry study regarding the feasibility of having a framework that would address the above challenges for the benefits of our members and the industry as a whole.
This industry project will consist of 3 phases
– Identify stakeholders’ concerns and feasibility study to develop framework
– Detailed study and development of industry framework
– Implementation
From the above, SWAS hope to achieve the following objectives:
– Increase practice standards of the establishments
– Increase skills and knowledge for industry workforce
– Increase efficiency
– Increase professionalism in the industry
Some of the future implementations that may help the industry to achieve the above are:
– Continuous Professional Development (CPD) implementation (For both employees and employers)
– Maintaining Training & Competency guideline in all establishments
SWAS (Spa and Wellness Association Singapore) has commissioned Republic Polytechnic, Singapore to conduct the phase one study; an in-depth analysis to Identify stakeholders’ concerns and feasibility study to develop framework.
The objectives of this study are:
– To provide an overview of the wellness industry in Singapore, with specific focus on the Beauty, Hair and Spa industries and to determine consumer forces driving the growth of wellness services and products.
– To collect some of the first ever primary data from both the industry and consumers via focus groups about their views on the current bottlenecks and gaps in the industry.
– To highlight key challenges by each sector and the industry as a whole.
– To provide recommendations on how the wellness industry can overcome these bottlenecks.
The study presents series of recommendations for industry stakeholders to pursue in order to address key market gaps in the supply and demand for skilled manpower. The analysis and recommendations presented in this report are based upon primary and secondary research conducted by Republic Polytechnic from May 2012 to July 2012. In addition to conducting a literature review and gathering existing information on the beauty, hair and spa industry, the research team conducted the following primary research:
Four focus group sessions where more than 61 interviews were conducted with leading industry “thinkers” representing different segments of the Singapore Wellness industry, as well as with representatives of Beauty, Hair and Spa providers, including education programs and training providers.
The focus group discussions were organized around three (3) main topics:
a. Opportunities in the market: is the industry growing?
b. Cost of business: is your business profitable?
c. Manpower: do you have sufficient manpower to meet the needs of the industry?
The outcome of the discussion resulted in some key recommendations for improvement as follows:
1) Improve the image of the Wellness Industry
2) Create a continuous education pathway and career path for the skilled staff
3) Create opportunities to attract new talent
4) Engage industry with research and support
5) Allow internationally certified students to work on a working holiday visa program
6) To propose the development of a Spa, Beauty & Wellness Framework (Education and career path)
For more information, Please contact the association secretariat:
Mr William Yeo
Director, Operations
Spa & Wellness Association Singapore
Tel: +65 65137315
Email: secretariat@swas.sg
About SWAS
As a trade association, SWAS’ key focuses stand on four pillars:
– raising standards to nurture stronger businesses and better client service
– educating its members to fill the gap and offer career or business opportunities
– creating a platform for industry players to share their knowledge and grow business
– being an access point to industry/market research and gateway into government bodies and other associations
Recent accomplishments of SWAS
SWAS has been very active in leading Singapore companies to take part in many international industry trade shows to provide trade opportunities under the Singapore Pavilion in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Dubai and Italy. We constantly look for other credible international trade shows to provide more international trade opportunities for our members and industry friends alike.
Together with an insurance broker, SWAS have launched an industry insurance plan in July 2010 to protect the consumers’ unused package money in the event an establishment closes. Case Trust has now implemented this plan as mandatory criteria for any establishment to be Case Trusted and for any Spa to be accredited.
SWAS has also recently embarked on an industry software development with the support of IDA. The purpose of this industry software is to lower operation cost and increase efficiency of our members.
