Mention “Alibaba” and you would probably recall the school day stories about Ali Baba and his notorious activities.

But today in the digital world, Alibaba takes on a different image – that of an e-commerce giant that has taken the online shopping scene by storm. We bet you’ve got a houseful of stuff from Taobao right?

In Singapore, the Alibaba Business College is making waves in a different way by upskilling individuals and businesses to keep up with the challenges in e-commerce.

Global E-Commerce Hub

In November last year, NTUC LearningHub (LHUB) launched e-commerce masterclasses to train local talents and help propel Singapore to be a leading global digital e-commerce hub.

This was done in collaboration with NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), Alibaba Business College and the Nanyang International Business College (NIBC).

Singapore is the first country out of China to launch the programme which is being conducted in English.

Feedback

The Soo Kee Group is in the jewellery business and its general manager Angelina Lau acknolwedged that e-commerce is all around today.

“My team and I attended the course to learn and explore more about the recent digital trends and way to integrate the online to offline strategies in a retail business. I would like to encourage all retailers to attend this lesson because we can keep an open mind and challenge the way we think our business strategies,” she said.

Meanwhile, brick artist Jeffrey Kong, who sells his works online, is keen to explore ways to reach to a wider audience with his works.

“We are setting up an online store and there are differences in culture and audience when you are selling outside Singapore. These are some things I would need to be mindful of when presenting my work and be able to price my work properly. This is something I have learnt from this masterclass session,” he said.

Moving forward, NTUC LearningHub said that the subsequent course sessions being planned in June and July have been repackaged thanks to the feedback given by the participants.

Masterclass You Will Want!

The first batch of masterclass courses began in January this year, with close to 40 participants in each of the modules.

If you are keen to take your businesses online or wish to pick up e-commerce technical skills for career development, here are some of the courses being offered under the tie-up. The courses run for between two to four days depending on the content.

• Masterclass in Global E-Commerce Trends and Insights is for professionals who wish to learn about global e-commerce and the opportunities that it can bring.
• Masterclass in Effective Ways to Grow Your Customers Online can help business owners and professionals find out more about the right digital marketing tools to improve online traffic.
• Masterclass in How to Start an Online Business will teach you about the nuts and bolts of various e-commerce platforms.
• The Masterclass in Optimising Your E-Commerce Business with Advanced Techniques is targeted at those who wish to learn about supply chain and logistics matters in the online business world.

For more information about the masterclasses you can visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/