Accreditation, career development framework launched for transport engineers

SINGAPORE — A professional accreditation that provides engineers with a platform to advance in their careers based on skill and mastery, and which also serves as a yardstick for their employers to determine their workers' competence, has been extended to railway and transportation engineers.

Railway and transportation is the sixth discipline of engineering to be included in the Institution of Engineers Singapore's (IES) Chartered Engineer programme which was launched in 2013. Chartership for railway engineers was launched today (May 29) with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the IES, the Land Transport Authority, Singapore Workforce Development Agency, SBS Transit Limited (SBST), and SMRT Trains (SMRT), witnessed by Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Josephine Teo.

Other branches of the field which are already listed under the programme are aerospace, chemical and process, environment and water, marine and offshore, and systems engineering.

IES president Chong Kee Sen explained that the chartership would recognise the skills and mastery acquired by railway engineers who have been working for at least four years in the industry.

“(It) will provide validation to engineers in this discipline, giving them a title that endorses their experience, expertise and competence,” he said, adding that the title will boost the engineers' professional standing as well as give them a leg up for further career development and opportunities.

Mr Chong said that the IES will set up an additional unit under the Chartership Programme, which will determine the standards by which engineers who apply for the railway and transportation chartership will be assessed for eligibility. Railway and transportation engineers will be able to apply for the chartership by the end of the year.

In her speech, Mrs Teo said that the MOU will set a common set of railway engineering industry standards in terms of competency and work. "(It) will also provide a platform for the continual development of railway engineering professional standards and recognition," she said.

Separately, train operators SMRT and SBST also launched new career development frameworks for their engineers.

Both career development structures provide engineers the option to advance their careers either as engineers or in management.

SMRT's Engineer Professional Career Roadmap also includes a mandatory three-month training programme for all its engineers.