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The Building Construction And Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU) has formed a Company Training Committee (CTC) with one of its unionised companies, CPG Facilities Management (CPGFM), to identify the training and skills that workers in the facilities management industry will need to keep up with industry transformation.
This commitment was sealed with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between both parties today. Comprising union leaders from BATU and senior management from CPGFM, the CTC will bring together key partners to identify and address training gaps and needs for workers, as the company undergoes a series of transformation efforts to upgrade jobs and increase productivity with the use of technology.
Building the industry workforce for tomorrow
This CTC is the first between BATU and CPGFM in the facilities management industry. BATU will be forming similar partnerships with the key intent to help workers to adopt new skills to ride on the industry transformation. It echoes the Labour Movement’s strategy of transforming workers in tandem with industry transformation through the ground-up efforts of Company Training Committees. More of such committees are in the pipeline since its announcement by NTUC Secretary-General, Ng Chee Meng. Some other companies that have made similar moves with the establishment of CTCs are those in healthcare, hospitality, aerospace, and engineering as well as the port engineering industry. It is the Labour Movement’s way to transform every worker into Worker 4.0, as every worker matters. More details of the ground-up approach can be found in Annex A.
BATU’s Executive Secretary Zainal Sapari said, “The formation of the CTC with CPGFM is part of the Labour Movement’s efforts to make the Industry Transformation Maps real for our workers. It is important that companies work together with their unions to identify the skills needed for future jobs and effectively map these with the training required, as the unions can value-add with our understanding of ground issues and ability to mobilise workers for training. We will continue to work with our unionised companies to set up more CTCs so that more workers can reap the rewards of industry transformation.”
The facilities management industry consists of multi-disciplinary work activities, such as landscaping, security and lift maintenance even up to cleaning services. Traditionally, a Facilities Manager or Managing Agent will have to coordinate multiple work orders, marking scoreboards on multiple paperwork and managing outsourced workers. However, the future landscape of this industry forces Facilities Managers and Managing Agents to move away from such processes to harness technology to enhance a more streamlined process. Devices such as drones, cameras, and even artificial intelligence (AI) come into play for monitoring and rating of jobs and performances. Scoreboards and work orders can now be digitally stored and transferred.
CPGFM has been one of the key players in the facilities management industry. This new CTC will examine all the job functions of CPGFM and identify the gaps, using future roles as the benchmark. CPGFM’s employees who are familiar with their job responsibilities and work processes, will be consulted to identify the skills needed. It will be done in stages. Jobs that are likely to be disrupted or face a higher risk to be disrupted will be the main priority for now. According to Chief Operating Officer of CPGFM, Mr Seng Joo How, “CPGFM has always focused on being future-ready, both for ourselves and for our clients. As the company moves towards further incorporating new innovations and technologies to be a smart facilities management partner, we are delighted to work with BATU and NTUC in upskilling our staff so that they can remain digitally relevant and at the top of their game.”
Some employees who had the opportunity to be part of the initial training agree acquiring these new skills are timely. “I look forward to attending several upcoming Building information Modelling (BIM) courses, as technologies like BIM would further improve our work efficiencies, team collaborations and add value to our clients. More importantly, by constantly upskilling ourselves, we get to keep up with how the built environment industry is transforming, and take on greater responsibilities that are beneficial for our personal growth and the company”, says Mr. Robin Tan, Manager (Technology & Systems), CPG Facilities Management Pte Ltd
Supporting company and worker transformation
NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) has been a key partner in CPGFM’s transformation journey. It will support the partnership and the CTC by curating and creating new bite-sized learning modules for its workers via e2i’s U Leap platform. The collaboration will also include areas such as placement, productivity improvements as well as training to up-skill and multi-skill their workers. e2i also supported the company in their drones and autonomous floor scrubbers projects. The implementation of these technologies will make the jobs easier, smarter and safer, henceforth resulting in higher productivity for workers and enabling them to move into higher value-added roles. Details of these initiatives can be found in Annex B.
“The facility management industry has a significant pool of mature workers who may not be digitally-savvy or clued in on digital know-hows. We hope to partner businesses in their transformation journey–while we help the companies to implement solutions to raise productivity and redesign work processes to be less labourious, we also hope to help their mature workers to bridge relevant digital skills gaps and become competent in their job roles which may have evolved and now encompass technology and digital elements,” said Mr Gilbert Tan, Chief Executive Officer of e2i.
The CTC will then leverage the expertise of training providers NTUC LearningHub and National University of Singapore School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE) to conduct a training needs analysis, develop training frameworks, as well as design and curate relevant programmes in the area of facilities management.
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