The landscape industry plays a vital role in creating Singapore's "City in a Garden" and it will be receiving S$12 million to boost productivity over the next 5 years.
To grow the industry by 4% - 6% each year, more than 20 initiatives will be rolled out under the National Parks Board (NParks)' Landscape Productivity Roadmap from 2011 - 2016. Key initiatives include:
- Landscape Apprenticeship and Mentorship Programme (LAMP)
- To attract young people to the industry, LAMP will focus on mentoring and on-the-job training to hone apprentices' managerial and technical skills.
- Developed by NParks with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), incentives will be provided to apprentices and host companies.
- LAMP is expected to kick off by Q1 2012.
- Nursery Accreditation Scheme
- To ensure more consistent quality nursery products and supply, the scheme will identify and implement best practices and standards.It will also optimise land productivity for the nursery sector.
- NParks expects to start this in Q1 2012 and accredit over 70 nurseries in the next 5 years.
- Landscape design guidelines & benchmarks for maintenance
- Guidelines will help landscape designers, contractors, developers, park managers and building owners become more aware of how their decisions affect the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of maintaining their landscapes.
- Landscape maintenance benchmarks from more productive companies will be used to set benchmarks for the industry.
NParks is also sourcing for different machinery that can improve productivity such as stump grinders and lease them to the industry, especially to smaller firms who cannot afford the equipment.
The new framework is developed by the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE) of NParks together with the landscape industry.
