[TMG Exclusive] With new outdoor adventure plan, will private operators go extinct?

by Elias Wee

OUTDOOR adventure programmes can help participants shed a few kilos, but a new G plan to nationalise such activities may end up causing private operators to shed profits instead.

That’s the concern raised by a new association set up in February when the G’s new National Outdoor Adventure Education Masterplan was introduced in this year’s Budget. What the plan promises: upgraded camp facilities, a new campsite, highly competent camp instructors.

Sounds good? Not to everyone. Writing to The Straits Times’ Forum page on April 13, Mr Lye Yen Kai, president of the new Outdoor Learning and Adventure Education Association (OLAE), said these developments may force its members onto a “highly uneven playing field”, depriving them of business. OLAE currently has about 10 corporate members, out of roughly 50 such companies in Singapore.

“We are concerned that the new developments will significantly impact the industry in the areas of reduced participant numbers, staff being laid off, and accessibility to potential activity locations,” said Mr Lye.

We spoke to a handful of private outdoor adventure companies, who said they were particularly troubled by two initiatives in the masterplan:

First, the expansion of Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) – the new $250 million Coney Island campus, and the tripling of manpower and participant capacity. Private operators fear they will be cut off from a potential windfall of new businesses generated by this expansion because currently, only full-time OBS instructors are allowed to conduct camps at its Pulau Ubin campus. 

Second, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will be putting together a team of full-time Outdoor Adventure Educators (OAEs) to conduct cohort camps at the four Outdoor Adventure Learning Centres (OALCs). Currently, it is mainly private operators who conduct cohort camps at these OALCs – which means at least some of them would be driven out of work by these new full-time G educators. 

Mr Lye said private operators look at these developments and fear they may not be able to compete with MOE and OBS’s unmatched resources and funding. He estimates roughly one quarter of the student outdoor education market may no longer be available for private operators.

“Currently, the entire school market that utilises outdoor education, we estimate, is around the size of 400,000 students,” said Mr Lye, who runs Pivotal Learning and employs four full-time trainers apart from managing a pool of 50 to 80 freelancers.

He added: “In the event all MOE campsites are in-sourced and OBS is running on full capacity, all cohort camps will be covered by MOE and OBS. Depending on the upgrading to MOE campsite facilities, we are estimating approximately between 100,000 to 150,000 students will be removed from the market.”

Mr Alvin Lee, 35, the founder and director of Training at All Hearts Adventure and Training (AHA&T), agrees with Mr Lye. “A lot of people say this is going to affect our rice bowl,” he said.

Mr Gary Lim, 49, programme director for Sands Leadership Development Centre (SLDC), said that “some [private operators] feel that now a piece of their pie has been taken away”. Another private operator, Mr Melvin Chong, 27, the founder of Team Building Team Learning (TBTL), said: “Of course, businesses will be affected – definitely.” This was especially so because the “market is already saturated”, he added.

AHA&T, SLDC, TBTL, and Pivotal Learning conduct outdoor adventure, leadership, and team building camps for students. 

The private outdoor education industry employs about 3,000 full-time, part-time, freelance trainers of different disciplines. As part of a two-year pilot programme at Dairy Farm OALC, MOE currently employs 16 full-time OAEs who serve about 10 per cent of the 80,000 participants of schools’ two cohort camps a year. A Channel News Asia (CNA) report on April 9 said that MOE, after a review of this pilot programme, “is looking to extend it to the other centres”.

MOE has also announced that facilities at the four OALCs will be upgraded to increase their camp capacity – another reason private operators are worried, if camps at these OALCs are to be conducted by the full-time OAEs only. When asked about whether these full-time OAEs would take over the jobs by private operators, however, the ministry declined to comment, saying it would decide on the number of OAEs only after a review of its new plans.

Regarding the use of OALCs, a ministry spokesman said: “There is no priority for schools using MOE OAEs over schools using service providers… Just as in all other OALCs, schools can choose to engage service providers or run their own camps.”

Responding to OLAE’s concerns, the spokesman said the ministry had met with the association twice this year to discuss the matter with them, and would continue to include them in ongoing dialogue about its plans. “With our various partners, we can raise the quality and quantity of outdoor adventure learning programmes for our students’ benefit,” said the MOE spokesman.

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Featured Image by Sean Chong.

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The post [TMG Exclusive] With new outdoor adventure plan, will private operators go extinct? appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Elias Wee