The Advanced Engineers Leadership Programme organised by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) which was held in six sessions from August to October last year. A total of 24 senior engineers have been trained in leadership and innovation skills to be the first batch to graduate this Monday. They also had one-to-one mentorship sessions with senior management from the industry.

Another 138 engineers also graduated from the second run of the Young Engineers Leadership Programme, held over 12 months from 2015 to 2016, Straits Times reported. During the graduation ceremony, IES president Edwin Khew said that these programmes are part of an industry-wide career development plan to equip students with the necessary skills to move up the career ladder and remain in engineering.

The programme exposed graduates to training in fields like patent law, soft skills like negotiation, and other engineering specialities.

Speaking at the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre in Jurong, Singapore has no shortage of talented engineers with great leadership potential, who are able to take over managerial roles to lead their organisations for better growth prospects. “For the younger engineering students, the lack of a clear progression pathway has also somewhat deterred them from embarking on it as a career.”

NTUC assistant director-general Vivek Kumar said there are many opportunities for engineers in Singapore, however shift in economic power, accelerating urbanisation, shift in demographics, scare resources and technological advancements have created new set of challenges for engineers to overcome.

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