By Shukry Rashid
Some 3,000 new PMET (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) jobs will be created by the year 2020 through the Precision Engineering (PE) Industry Transformation Map (ITM), which was launched by Trade and Industry (Industry) Minister S. Iswaran on 12 October 2016.
The ITM was launched in conjunction with a memorandum of understanding signing event at Meiban – a local Precision Engineering company.
Led by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the ITM is the first roadmap launched for the manufacturing sectors, which identifies growth areas to take Singapore into the future of manufacturing.
NTUC's supervising lead for the Electronics & Precision & Machinery Engineering cluster Melvin Yong, who was at the event, said: “The union supports the launch of PE ITM to better help the industry, and enable our workers to move into future and higher value-added jobs.”
He added that the tripartite partners will need to work closely, especially on the sectoral level, to build the industry’s capabilities, create employment and manage workers’ transition.
Growing Sector
In 2014, the PE industry employed 94,000 workers and contributed $8.8 billion in Value Added (VA, the gross domestic product-by-industry), which is about 15 per cent of Singapore’s manufacturing VA. Through the PE ITM, the industry’s VA is expected to grow to S$14 billion by 2020.
The key idea of the ITM is to shift towards higher value-added activities by growing complementary sectors such as robotics, additive manufacturing, sensors, advanced materials, and lasers and optics.
Mr Yong said that workers must be well-equipped to take on these future jobs. He added: “While there are good efforts within the ITM to attract new entrants into the industry, more proactive and dedicated help must be provided to the existing workforce to help them stay ready, stay resilient and stay relevant to the changing PE landscape.”
The scope of the Precision Engineering Sectorial Tripartite Committee will also be expanded to provide inputs on the progress of ITM objectives. The committee will be a key channel to engage companies, industry associations, schools and the workforce in the implementation of the ITM.
Source: NTUC This Week
