Scholarships for shuttlers, footballers

SEMBCORP Industries has launched a $50,000 scholarship programme for the tertiary education of young footballers or badminton players.

Its Trailblazer-Wong Kok Siew scholarships for Sports will be jointly administered by the Football Association of Singapore and the Singapore Badminton Association.

On Friday, SembCorp presented cheques of $25,000 each to the FAS and SBA.

FAS president Ho Peng Kee and SBA secretary-general Tan Kian Chew received the cheques on behalf of their respective organisations.

The scholarships are for Singapore citizens looking to study at local universities, polytechnics or Institutes of Technical Education.

They will assist young athletes, who may have had to sacrifice their training to do part-time jobs to finance their higher studies.

They are also a boost for these professional or semi-professional athletes, who may want to equip themselves for a second career after they retire from sports.

The programme is funded by the Trailblazer-Wong Kok Siew fund, set up by SembCorp two years ago, in memory of its late deputy chairman and chief executive officer, Wong Kok Siew.

S-League CEO Winston Lee said the scholarships were a good initiative.

He said: 'It's great for players who aspire to complete their diploma or tertiary education while pursuing a football career.

'It will certainly complement our FAS scholarships programme.'