Building Construction And Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU) to strengthen capabilities through professional development
The Building Construction and Timber Industries' Employees Union (BATU) announced today that it was launching its first community for Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) in the facilities management (FM) sector.
The grouping, known as the Community for Building Professionals (CBP), will target the 7,000 PMETs in the FM sector. This sector sees a very high proportion of PMETs.
BATU has always been looking for ways to strengthen PMETs capabilities so that they can adapt to the ever-changing business environment. Through the union's outreach to professionals from the FM sector, it found out there were professional development needs and gaps.
In a dialogue session held in August 2011 with management and industry partners, PMETs and union leaders, feedback was gathered on what they thought were the professional development needs in the sector. BATU then acted on the feedback and in three months launched the CBP.
One immediate benefit to members is that they can enjoy subsided rates for two courses. BATU and the CBP had identified two courses which are relevant to the career development needs of these PMETs. One is the Fire Safety Managers (FSM) course conducted by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the other is the Green Mark course by the Building and Construction Association (BCA) Academy.
For the FSM course, BATU has worked with NTUC's e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to provide a 50 per cent course fee funding for participants.
The CBP also introduced its logo on this occasion (see Annex). Moving forward it plans to launch a website which would provide timely updates on professional development opportunities, training information and more. PMETs can then also send their feedback and comments through the website, and will be able to sign up for the courses through the website to enjoy subsidised funding on the programmes.
About 120 people from the FM sector attended the launch today at the Suntec Convention Centre with BATU Executive Secretary, Mr Zainal Sapari, as the Guest-of-Honour.
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