Unveiled at the inaugural Aerospace Engineering Week, the certificate is a ground up initiative of NTUC’s Training Executive Committee

1. 10 April 2019, Wednesday – In the journey towards making the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) real, our unions have been working closely with NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to identify and close skill the gaps of workers across different industries. Feedback from the ground revealed a lack of suitable digital skills training for Technicians and Associate Professionals (TAPs), as many such courses in the market today are pegged at the Professional, Managerial and Executive (PME) level. However, it is critical for TAPs to be equipped with suitable digital skills in tandem with their PME peers as their companies progress rapidly towards Industry 4.0.Digital Literacy for Technicians and Associate Professionals
2. To close the skill gaps for TAPs, the Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate was launched today by NTUC Deputy Secretary-General, Dr Koh Poh Koon, at the inaugural Aerospace Engineering Week. This certificate is one of the first initiatives of NTUC’s Training Executive Committee, and is a concerted effort of NTUC, e2i, Institute of Technical Education (ITE), NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG).
3. TAPs cut across various job roles such as Assistant Engineers, Life Science & Engineering Technicians and Draughtsmen, and make up close to 21% of our Singaporean workforce as released in the Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Report (Refer to Page 7). TAPs are a substantial pool of workers whose training needs should be addressed to help them navigate digital skills training. TAPs who tend to be more hands-on and technically skilled must contend with the fact that technology will influence the nature of their jobs. Thus, they need to move in tandem with industry transformation and be equipped with digital skills, confidence and know-hows to complement and grow as their technical roles evolve.Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate
4. The Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate, targeted at TAPs across all manufacturing industries, adopts a blended learning approach for time-strapped workers to take on bite-size modules on U Leap (Learning Enabled through Active Participation), an NTUC learning mobile app; complemented with classroom-based training, which takes no more than a day of face-to-face and hands-on learning per module. The Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate is structured to cover three tracks:
   a. Digital Readiness: Technical Covers hands-on training in digital equipment and devices.
   b. Digital Readiness: Emerging Technologies Facilitates understanding of new technologies and their applications.
   c. Digital Readiness: Coding & Software Covers fundamental software and programming skills.
5. Individuals who complete three modules under the respective tracks will receive the corresponding track certificate. Workers who complete all three tracks and two foundation modules will receive a Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate. (Refer to Annex B for illustration).First Adopters: Aerospace Engineering industry
6. NTUC Aerospace and Aviation Cluster, together with e2i, ITE, NTUC LHUB and SSG, have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today at the event to commit to be the first adopters of the Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate, which will impact at least 1,000 workers across manufacturing industries in 2019.
7. e2i piloted the Introduction to Micro:bit Application in collaboration with ITE and NTUC LHUB with 100 union leaders and has received positive feedback. This module is a shorten version of one of the foundational modules under the Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate. One of the attendees, Mr Lee Jun Yuan, Executive Committee Member, Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union said, “Micro:bits training makes concepts of coding easy for workers to understand. The process is fun and it boosts my confidence in digital skills.”Inaugural Aerospace Engineering Week
8. The week-long Aerospace Engineering Week (See Annex D) kick-starts with the Aerospace Technology & Training Symposium at ITE College Central, followed by a series of professional development courses and training pegged around Aerospace 4.0 technologies and centred around the Worker 4.0 Digital Readiness Certificate. This inaugural Aerospace Engineering Week is the tripartite collaborative effort of NTUC’s Aerospace and Aviation Cluster, e2i, ITE, NTUC LHUB and SSG together with industry partners to bring training and learning opportunities to more companies and workers.