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By Shukry Rashid
NTUC LearningHub and SBS Transit signed an agreement on 9 December 2022 to co-develop a training curriculum for land transport workers.
The agreement’s objective is to future-proof the workforce for more sustainable land transport engineering and services, which will help minimise disruption.
The co-operation also aims to attract and retain land transport talents and uplift service standards for the public transport sector.
NTUC LearningHub and SBS Transit will co-develop training programmes under SkillsFuture Singapore’s Critical Core Skills Framework for SBS Transit staff over the next three years.
Under the framework, bus captains, and bus and rail technicians will acquire new skills in areas such as “thinking critically”, “interacting with others”, and “staying relevant”.
SBS Transit said the programmes would benefit passengers through better customer experience.
NTUC LearningHub will collaborate with SBS Transit to identify and train a pool of associate trainers to deliver courses to staff to build SBS Transit’s leadership framework.
The training provider will also facilitate learning journeys. Programme trainers and facilitators from NTUC LearningHub will help to identify specific learning needs and develop contextualised training programmes tailored for the public transport industry.
SBS Transit CEO Cheng Siak Kian said: “Our employees are our greatest assets, and we place great importance on their growth and professional development. Providing them with a progressive curriculum will help strengthen their competencies and develop both technical and soft skills for a holistic career development.”
SBS Transit also announced that it would invest $1 million towards its Rail Training Institute.
The institute will offer bite-sized courses and just-in-time training, leveraging technology such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.
NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Desmond Tan officiated the institute’s inauguration at Sengkang Depot.
SBS Transit Executive Signalling Engineer Effendy Ahmad Sata said that, typically, a signalling technician requires a year of training.
“With just-in-time training, we’re able to integrate the technician into the team earlier and reduce training wastage as they may have forgotten what they had learnt earlier. This increases productivity,” he added.