By Ryan Chan
In a bid to attract more bus captains to the public bus industry, a new SkillsFuture sectoral manpower plan was announced on 6 May 2016 to provide better career development and strengthen the Singaporean Core.
Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Transport Josephine Teo, who unveiled the plan at NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), set a target of increasing the current 9,200 bus captains today by 30 per cent to 12,000 over the next five years.
The Approach
The plan will adopt a five-pronged approach in achieving its target (see facing page for complete list of announcements):
· Facilitate entry into the industry
· Enhance training to professionalise bus careers
· Promote attractive benefits and career progression pathways
· Build pipeline of future bus professionals
· Strengthen community outreach and appreciation
SMS Teo said that bus driving has progressed to become a highly skilled job. Aside from remembering routes and driving safely, a bus captain has to also make sound judgment calls in response to dynamic traffic conditions.
“Good communication skills have also become important. For example, bus captains are expected to adequately and promptly respond to commuters’ queries – about fare amounts, directions – and help people if they have mobility problems. From time to time, bus equipment is upgraded. Bus captains must (thus) learn how to operate the new equipment quickly and effectively,” she said.
The plan will also seek to address the manpower needs of the public bus industry through providing easier entry into the industry and having attractive benefits for workers.
Attracting workers to the industry will also start by educating future workers. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Republic Polytechnic and the Land Transport Authority will see bus-related modules introduced in the final year of the Diploma in Engineering Systems and Management. Students from the Institute of Technical Education will also receive attachment opportunities through the Enhanced Internship Programme in Automotive Technology.
Singapore Bus Academy
As part of the strategies outlined in the plan, the Singapore Bus Academy (SGBA) was also established on the same day through an MOU with the tripartite partners.
Coming together to ink the MOU were representatives from the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore Workforce Development Agency, e2i, National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU) and the four bus operators including SMRT and SBS Transit.
The SGBA will be a centralised training centre at e2i that will put together the best practices of the individual operators’ training efforts to attract, retain and upskill the public bus industry workforce.
The academy will help ensure bus captains will be future-ready, especially with the Government exploring the idea of driverless buses in the future.
“Some of you have asked if the deployment of autonomous vehicles in future will cause certain professions such as bus driving to become obsolete. We can say with certainty that the answer is ‘yes’,” SMS Teo said. “But… that’s what the SGBA is here for – to help bus professionals be ready for future transitions.”
The academy is slated to begin operations in the second half of 2016. Further details will be announced soon.
LM reaction
NTWU released a statement lauding the new sectoral manpower plan as it included many of the ideas they had been pushing for
The bus academy, for example, was what NTWU Executive Secretary and Member of Parliament Melvin Yong had brought up in recent Parliamentary debates.
Making the Omnibus Drivers’ Vocational Licence (ODVL) portable was the union’s other proposal.
Mr Yong said: “As the industry experiences (the) entrance of new and more public bus operators due to the transition to the Bus Contracting Model, the portable ODVL will help facilitate our bus captains to start work at the new company without waiting for the re-application of the licence, which can sometimes take up to an average of two months from the first point of application. The union is thus happy that both proposals are realised.”
e2i CEO Gilbert Tan said: “The introduction of the sectoral manpower plan is a significant development to professionalise careers in the bus industry. With the set-up of the SGBA, workers can look forward to greater access to career guidance, training, placement and opportunities for continuous upgrading.”
Sectoral Manpower Plan: What’s in Store
Facilitate Entry into the Industry
· Career Transition Programme by e2i to conduct workshops to increase workers’ employability, with industry previews and learning visits for better understanding of the industry.
· Fast-tracked Class 3 driving licence. Also, those who have already obtained the licence no longer need to wait a year before being issued the Omnibus Driver’s Vocational Licence (ODVL).
· Place-and-Train programme with in-house training and mentorship guidance.
Enhance Training to Professionalise Bus Careers
· Singapore Bus Academy (SGBA) for all operators to use.
· Enhanced Vocational Licence Training Programme – a five-day course comprising six modules, such as vocational licence regulations, safe driving, service literacy and labour-union relations.
· 15 SkillsFuture Study Awards to be offered to workers pursuing upgrading opportunities.
Promote Attractive Benefits and Career Progression Pathways
· Creating a more conducive workplace such as NTWU’s pilot workplace health programme.
· ODVL to be made portable across the industry so drivers can transfer from operator to operator smoothly without having to re-apply whenever they join a new company. Currently, each new application takes two months to process.
Build Pipeline of Future Bus Professionals
· Bus-related content offered for Republic Polytechnic students in the final year of their Diploma in Engineering Systems and Management as part of an MOU with LTA.
· Enhanced Internship Programme in Automotive Technology, which piloted in January 2016, offers ITE students attachment opportunities.
Strengthen Community Outreach and Appreciation
· SGBA and e2i will have more outreach programmes to the public on career opportunities.
· Campaigns for better appreciation of bus captains will be organised.
Source: NTUC This Week
