Ensuring Sufficient Engineering Graduates for Projected Needs in Rail Engineering

29 Ms Sun Xueling asked the Minister for Transport (a) how does the Ministry ensure that there are sufficient engineering graduates from our Institutes of Higher Learning to meet the projected needs for rail engineering and the opening of the Thomson-East Coast Line; and (b) whether the Ministry has plans to train young engineers to develop "deep engineering expertise" as recommended by SMRT's technical advisory panel and, if so, what are these plans.

The Minister for Transport (Mr Khaw Boon Wan): Mr Speaker, Sir, the railway industry employs more than 2,000 engineers and 4,000 technicians today. By 2020, we expect to employ 1,500 more engineers and technicians to build, operate and maintain our expanding rail network. The Singapore Rail Academy, which was established in February this year, will coordinate and drive industry-wide efforts to grow engineering capabilities in the railway sector. This was one of the first initiatives that I launched when I joined MOT. I see this growing need for greater expertise in this area and I have not even talked about the HSR and RTS yet.

"Deep expertise" is the most valuable currency in the railway industry. To facilitate skills development and upgrading, Government, industry and the unions are working in partnership to develop the Public Transport Skills Framework. This is an important framework because then, everybody, all the stakeholders, will know what to do as we go forward.

The Framework provides consistent industry-wide standards on the skills and competencies required at different levels in the railway sector and the corresponding training courses. With this, training institutions can better design their curricula to cater to the attainment of different skill levels. Employers can also use this framework to put in place structured on-the-job skills development programmes. Students and workers seeking to upgrade themselves will also have information on the programmes available to help them reach the next skill level and concrete milestones to work towards.

At the same time, we are also stepping up training efforts. Over the past three years, ITEs, Polytechnics and Universities launched seven new railway engineering courses, ranging from NITEC to Masters. The first few batches of graduates will be ready to join the industry in the next one to two years.

We are also working with programme partners to launch more rail-related Continuing Education and Training programmes. For example, Singapore Polytechnic has launched the Earn-And-Learn programme that enables ITE graduates who are working in the rail industry to upgrade their skills by taking courses that can eventually add up to a diploma. NTU has just introduced a new Specialist Certificate in Civil Infrastructure Engineering to help environmental engineers gain civil engineering knowledge. In addition, we are also looking to supplement the pipeline of engineers by offering more Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs) for potential mid-career hires. To date, some 108 PCP placements have been taken by the two rail operators.

Ms Sun Xueling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): I thank the Minister for his explanation. I have some clarifications to make. Based on what the Minister has shared about on-the-job training, I would like to understand when he mentioned "deep engineering expertise", may I know what is the proportion that can be accomplished through classroom training? How much on-the-job training is required and, if a lot of on-the-job training is required, do we currently have sufficient experienced engineers to provide the on-the-job training to the young engineers?

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Clearly, middle-level mentors are in short supply because, especially when we are in such an accelerated programme of trying to do so many things. Therefore, the traditional or tertiary institutions play a major role but we will do what we can.

By "deep expertise", I also have in mind the higher end of the eco-system because the whole rail industry, not just in Singapore, world-wide, is transforming. One of the first things I observed when I joined MOT was how backward the rail industry was compared to the other transport sectors, like aviation and shipping, worldwide. Aviation is way ahead, shipping is behind and railway engineering is really, really behind. I was, for example, looking at the way they maintained things.

I spent quite some time visiting the aviation industry, how do they do their maintenance. Railways are really way behind. And I have been pushing, for example, for predictive maintenance and it was still a very new concept for the railway operators. As I said, not just in Singapore but world-wide. But there lies an opportunity. If we can, along the way, build up deep expertise in this area, I think it could again create a new sub-industry for Singapore the way we created the NEWater industry. So, even though we have tonnes of problems trying to resolve the immediate basic needs of upgrading maintenance, I tell my stakeholders to also look far ahead. The rail industry globally is a sunrise industry.

I talked about HSR just now. That is just between Malaysia and Singapore but hundreds and thousands of kilometres of HSRs are being built in Asia. You look at the Belt and Road Initiatives. There are plenty of opportunities. Singaporeans who have that kind of interest and, given the opportunities, I think we should try to gain a slice of that opportunity.