- Inks a licensing agreement to utilize Gakken’s educational content covering best practices in elderly care training
- Partnership with Japan’s leading publishing and elderly care provider to enhance quality of training for the community care and home caregiver sectors in Singapore and the region
SINGAPORE – 1 February 2018 – Health Management International Pte Ltd (“HMI” or the “Group”), a growing regional private healthcare provider that owns two tertiary hospitals in Malaysia, and a healthcare training centre in Singapore, has announced the signing of a licensing agreement with Japan’s leading publishing and elderly care company, Gakken Cocofump Holdings Co Ltd (“Gakken”).
With over 70 years of experience in producing educational content, Gakken’s training in medical, nursing and elderly care have been adopted in over 1,300 hospitals and old age homes in Japan. Pursuant to the agreement, Gakken will license educational content consisting more than ten hours of lectures and applied learning videos with over six hundred pages of material covering the essentials of basic elderly care.
The Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, HMI Institute of Health Sciences (“HMI Institute”) will use the material extensively within its coursework. The institute provides nationally accredited and career oriented healthcare education and training courses to serve the manpower and training needs of the healthcare industry in Singapore. The introduction of Gakken’s elderly care content into HMI Institute’s curriculum will help to enhance the quality of its training program, and is particularly relevant in the context of the rapidly aging population in Singapore.
HMI Institute is one of two SkillsFuture Singapore appointed Continuing Education and Training Centres for the healthcare support sector. The institute has trained more than 4,400 graduates for the Singapore healthcare and elderly care industry. HMI and Gakken were first introduced by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore to explore collaboration opportunities.
Speaking on the Group’s latest collaboration, HMI’s CEO Ms Chin Wei Jia said, “Against the backdrop of rising demand for elderly care in the region, we are delighted to be partnering with Gakken in delivering high quality educational content at our institute. Through the knowledge share of best practices, this collaboration will effectively enhance the level of training and ensure our graduates are equipped with the expertise to embark on a fulfilling career in healthcare. Tapping on Gakken’s educational know-how, we are also looking to supplement classroom-based instruction with the addition of e-learning capabilities for a more efficient learning experience.”
On the signing of the agreement, Gakken’s Managing Director, Mr Hitoshi Kobayakawa said, “Backed by our history of providing quality education, we are excited to be partnering with HMI, one of the region’s leading healthcare providers. We now have a partner to support our expansion into a sizeable, high-growth market in Asia within the elderly care segment. With its longstanding reputation for nurturing students to become competent healthcare professionals, we hope our expertise in elderly care will value add to HMI Institute’s curriculum.”