Announced at the inaugural Marine Week, NTUC’s Marine Engineering Cluster and e2i partner Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI), SkillsFuture Singapore, and Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) to equip workforce with critical skills and competencies for Marine 4.0.
03 December 2018, Monday – To equip the Singaporean core with critical skills and competencies in the Marine & Offshore (M&O) industry, NTUC’s Marine Engineering Cluster and e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) unveil key training initiatives to make the Industry Transformation Map (ITM) real for marine workers.
As the industry shifts with the introduction of disruptive technologies, such as additive manufacturing, process automation, artificial intelligence and move into new growth areas such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and offshore wind sectors, there is an urgent need to upskill workers to cope with digital technology and advanced manufacturing trends.
Skills Strategy for Marine & Offshore Industry
The Skills Strategy for Marine & Offshore industry unveiled today by NTUC’s Secretary-General, Mr Ng Chee Meng at the inaugural Launch of Marine week mapped out the 4-prong training initiatives. It encompasses horizontal skills to cope with digital transformation and vertical skills to deepen and specialise in industry 4.0 or otherwise known as advanced manufacturing skills. They are:

1. Digital Readiness Framework to raise digital literacy of all workers;
2. Marine Technical Skills to boost technical competencies of technical professionals such as technician, engineers.
3. Advanced Manufacturing Framework to impart the application and use of innovative technology to improve product and process.
4. Masterclasses by overseas experts and practitioners to impart new capabilities to workers in the industry,

Out of which, the Digital Readiness and Advance Manufacturing Frameworks are curated by the Manufacturing Training Committee who are part of the Labour Movement’s Training Council formed this year to oversee the training and employment needs of workers across the 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs).
These two frameworks are the dual engines to drive the Skills Strategy for Marine & Offshore Industry.
Digital Readiness Framework (BBIP)
One of the key engine to drive the Skills Strategy is the Digital Readiness Framework (BBIP), it serves to guide companies and workers to acquire digital proficiency to help all workers cope with technologies used at work and everyday life. There are 4 levels of competencies namely, Bridging, Beginner, Intermediate and Proficiency which provide a step-by-step guide to workers to tap on current courses available in the market to develop their digital skills.
For example, the course “SkillsFuture for the Digital Workplace” under the ‘Beginner Level’ is a national digital literacy course to create awareness of emerging technologies used at digital workplaces. Kepple Offshore & Marine, Sembcorp Marine Limited, ST Engineering Marine and Wartsila have collectively trained more than 300 workers since its roll out in early 2018.
The intermediate level addresses applying digital technologies in everyday life to increase personal productivity. Courses such as Robotics Process Automation (RPA) are suitable for PMEs to make use of digital technology to automate routine processes and trigger responses with minimal need of human intervention. For example, triggering a customised individual email reply based on a set of database update or changes.
A Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was inked today between NTUC’s Marine Engineering Cluster, e2i, Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI), SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) to affirm commitment amongst the industry partners to continue to curate the 4-prong training initiatives, implement Skills Strategy for Marine & Offshore industry, and e2i will further complement with ULeap to roll out a series of bite-sized horizontal and functional skills training which comes with certification for workers. For a start, approximately 1,000 PMETs are expected to benefit from these training initiatives in 2019.
Inaugural Marine Week
The week-long event (See Annex C) kick-start with the Marine & Offshore Technology & Training Symposium at e2i followed by a series of professional development courses and trainings pegged around Marine 4.0 technologies and centred around our 4-prong training initiative. This inaugural Marine Week is the tripartite collaborative effort of NTUC’s Marine Engineering Cluster, e2i, ASMI, SSG and IMarEST to bring training and learning opportunities to company and workers.