Speech By Mrs Josephine Teo, Senior Minister Of State, Prime Minister's Office, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs & Ministry Of Transport, At The Launch Of The SkillsFuture Sectoral Manpower Plan For The Public Bus Industry

06/05/2016

Speech By Mrs Josephine Teo, Senior Minister Of State, Prime Minister's Office, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs & Ministry Of Transport, At The Launch Of The SkillsFuture Sectoral Manpower Plan For The Public Bus Industry

By Mrs Josephine Teo, Senior Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Ministry of Transport

Tripartite partners, Brothers and Sisters from the labour movement, Leaders from our public bus operators, Colleagues from MOM and LTA, Bus Captains who are with us today, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our public bus network today is operated by a workforce of over 11,000, of which around 9,200 are bus captains. Two incumbent operators – SBS Transit and SMRT Buses – have been making sure that the combined fleet of 5,000 buses provide consistent and reliable services along 230 trunk routes and 64 feeder routes.

As we have just celebrated May Day, I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all 11,000 colleagues in the public bus industry for your hard work and dedication. It is not an easy job making sure that commuters are able to enjoy safe and reliable bus services consistently. On festive occasions, when other families spend time together, many of you are diligently at work. In highly built-up cities like Singapore, delays occur mostly through factors beyond your control such as road accidents resulting in traffic jams. Most commuters are understanding but you get your share of unreasonable outbursts. Even so, you are undaunted and I know from my many interactions with you, remain passionate about delivering service excellence.

The results show your commitment. Last year, commuters made an average of close to 3.9 million trips on our buses daily. This is about 40% more than the average of 2.8 million ten years ago in 2005. With so many more trips, it’s tough to keep up performance. Fortunately, satisfaction with bus services remains high. It has been sustained at slightly above 90% for three years in a row. Well done!

Later this month, our public bus industry will cross a major milestone when new operator Towers Transit start services for commuters, having won the first bus package under the new Bus Contracting Model. You know by now that Towers Transit has made good progress in recruitment and training. I’m especially heartened that there is a strong Singaporean Core within its team of bus captains and hope that all bus operators will strive to maintain the Singaporean Core in all your key functions.

The Government decided on the transition to the Bus Contracting Model to raise service levels for commuters. At the same time, we are making significant investments to expand the bus fleet and improve reliability. To realise the full benefits of these investments, we need more bus captains. We expect to ramp up the pool of bus captains in Singapore from 9,200 bus captains today to around 12,000 over the next five years. This is a very significant increase of 30%.

Over the years, bus driving has also progressed to become a highly skilled job. A good bus captain not only remembers all his routes and drives safely, he must make sound judgement calls in response to the dynamic traffic conditions. As we raise service levels, good communications skills have also become more important. For example, bus captains are expected to adequately and promptly respond to commuters’ queries – about fare amounts, directions - and help people if they have mobility problems. From time to time, bus equipment is upgraded. Bus captains must learn how to operate the new equipment quickly and effectively.

As we expand the bus fleet and raise service levels, we must also address the manpower needs of our public bus industry. The Public Transport Sectoral Tripartite Committee (PT STC), which I chair, has actively deliberated on this matter and put together a Sectoral Manpower Plan. Over the next few years, we will implement a five-pronged strategy that is aligned with the national SkillsFuture movement to attract and retain bus captains to strengthen the Singaporean Core, help them grow their careers and become future-ready. Let me say more about each strategy.

Strategy 1: Facilitate Entry and Transition to Bus Careers

Last year, at my request, SBST and SMRT arranged for me to meet a group of women bus captains. They are a spunky lot and all have interesting stories that left a deep impression on me. One of them was Lim Thiam Cheu. Before joining the bus profession, Thiam Cheu had been a cashier at a retailer. She told me she became bored with the job as she was not learning anything new. In 2013, as she looked for a change, she was surprised that SBS Transit offered to train her without obligation. Why was she surprised? Because she was at the time 56 years old and did not believe anyone was willing to give her a chance to start a new career. Also, like most people, Thiam Cheu could not imagine herself operating a vehicle weighing more than 14 tonnes. But it did not take her long to master the skill and gain confidence. Thiam Cheu has been driving for almost three years and she’s now 59 years young, because she continues to learn new things on the job like a young person expects to. To Thiam Cheu and all the brave people who tried, you have earned our respect. To SBST, I say “Thank You!” for being open-minded and willing to give these job seekers a chance.

But in fact, many job seekers do not know there are good jobs in the public bus industry. Even if they did, they are fearful that they cannot do the job. We will do better to help them understand the requirements. LTA will partner e2i to implement the Career Transition Programme targeted at potential recruits. They will benefit from a range of support measures, participate in industry previews conducted by the public bus operators, and hear from existing bus captains.

Besides the Career Transition Programme, we have developed an accelerated pathway for individuals to meet the eligibility criteria to become a bus captain. For non-drivers, LTA aims to introduce an accelerated Class 3 driving licence course to help recruits advance more quickly to the next stage of training to qualify for a Class 4A driving licence, after which they can be considered for the Omnibus Drivers’ Vocational Licence (ODVL). Currently, recruits must also have held a Class 3 driving licence for one year before being eligible the for ODVL. In future, recruits will have to meet minimum-mileage requirements instead as a better measure of their road-worthiness.

Subsequent to the Class 3 driving licence course for non-drivers, recruits will continue with the Place-And-Train Programme for another two months, which allows them to progressively build up vocational skills and be supported by experienced mentors.

Strategy 2: Enhance Training to Uplift and Professionalise Bus Careers

Singaporeans in all sectors across all levels want to gain new skills and see their careers progress over time; bus captains are no different. To enhance training for bus professionals, we will establish the Singapore Bus Academy, or SGBA for short. SGBA will be a centralised institute to complement the training efforts of individual operators. It will pull together the best practices in the professional development of all employees in the public bus industry. Plans are underway for SGBA to be operational at the Devan Nair Institute from the second half of this year.

SGBA is an anchor initiative of the PT STC. I thank both SMRT and SBST for generously sharing your training resources to get SGBA going and look forward to incorporating the resources of Towers Transit and Go Ahead in due course. Later, representatives from LTA, NTWU, e2i, WDA, and all four public bus operators will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to establish SGBA. The MOU signals our joint commitment towards the shared goal to improve professionalism of the Singaporean Core in the public bus industry through better training.

To build a firm foundation for public bus professionals, SGBA will introduce an Enhanced Vocational Licence Training Programme for all new bus captains. This is a comprehensive 5-day programme that covers vocational licence regulations, labour-union relations, safe driving techniques, as well as service literacy to reinforce the attitudes, skills and knowledge that are core to the bus captain profession. SGBA will also develop programmes for existing bus professionals to deepen their skills and be future-ready.

In addition, LTA and WDA will offer 15 SkillsFuture Study Awards for public bus professionals to pursue upgrading opportunities at our Institutes of Higher Learning. This is a modest start; we can expand the number of awards as more express interest.

Strategy 3: Promote Attractive Employment Packages and Career Progression Pathways

Since the Bus Contracting Model was announced, we have seen the industry respond positively. For example, operators have improved employment terms for bus captains, in tandem with the better skills and service levels expected of them.

The tripartite partners also recognised the need for more conducive workplaces for our bus captains. Wherever possible, bus interchanges and depots are being upgraded to provide larger canteens and staff lounges. Our operators have also collaborated with the Health Promotion Board and the National Transport Workers’ Union on a 9-month pilot “Healthier Workers, Happier Workers”. This workplace health programme has benefited more than 1,100 SBS Transit and SMRT bus captains since June last year.

We have also made all Omnibus Driver Vocational Licences fully portable across the industry. This will make it easier for a bus captain to move to where there is a better job opening for him or her. It will mean the operators having to work a bit harder or your internal career development programmes to retain talented staff; but it will also mean you stand to attract or retain good staff if you can offer a better workplace culture or more advancement opportunities. I’m confident you will rise to the challenge.

Strategy 4: Build Pipeline of Future Bus Professionals through Pre-Employment Programmes

I am glad to announce that LTA has reached agreement with Republic Polytechnic to introduce more bus-related content within the final-year curriculum of their new Diploma in Engineering Systems and Management. Very soon, students in this course will get to choose bus-related modules as their specialisation.

For NITEC students, the ITE has also introduced attachment opportunities with the public bus operators through the Enhanced Internship Programme in Automotive Technology since January this year. 16 interns have participated in this programme so far, and we expect to more students to benefit from future runs.

Both programmes have been designed with younger Singaporeans in mind. Public transport careers need to be on their radar screen. They need to see related courses in the prospectuses, hear about the jobs from their instructors and take bus specialisations, have opportunities to be attached to related companies and see industry people at the career fairs. We must strengthen these efforts so younger Singaporeans know about the opportunities and know they are welcome to join the public bus industry.

Strategy 5: Strengthen Outreach and Community Appreciation for Bus Professionals

In addition to the programmes I have outlined, SGBA and e2i are planning more outreach programmes to help Singaporeans be more aware of and better understand the career opportunities available in the public bus industry.

Beyond that, the PT STC felt that bus professionals deserve better recognition and stronger affirmation, not only from their employers but from the general public.

A bus captain driving a trunk route calls at an average of 45 bus stops for each trip which means several hundred bus stops and countless traffic junctions a day. At every bus stop, there is a chance of encountering a commuter who felt he has had to wait too long or is annoyed he was not able to board an earlier bus. At every traffic junction, there’s a risk the bus captain may have to react quickly to a changed signal or inconsiderate pedestrians darting across the road, causing the bus to jerk or a passenger to fall.

Bus captains are sometimes at the receiving end of temperamental outbursts or threats by commuters, even when delays or sudden bus movements could not be avoided. In the last three years, there was an average annual of 40 cases of abuse against bus captains.

At the same time as we expect better service levels, I hope commuters extend our courtesy and be gracious towards bus captains. The promotional clip which we watched earlier is part of LTA’s “Happy to be part of your everyday” campaign that was launched two months ago. This campaign seeks to raise the awareness of our bus captains and help us appreciate them for taking us to our destinations every day.

Conclusion

I have spoken at length about the comprehensive slate of initiatives under the SkillsFuture Sectoral Manpower Plan. They are, to:

• (i) Facilitate Entry and Transition to Bus Careers;

• (ii) Enhance Training to Uplift and Professionalise Bus Careers;

• (iii) Promote Attractive Employment Packages and Career Progression Pathways;

• (iv) Build Pipeline of Future Bus Professionals through Pre-Employment Programmes; and

• (v) Strengthen Outreach and Community Appreciation for Bus Professionals.

All five strategies under the SkillsFuture Sectoral Manpower Plan are equally important, and have been carefully developed to support our twin goals of meeting the manpower needs of our public bus industry and strengthening its Singaporean Core.

Some of you have asked if the deployment of autonomous vehicles in future will cause certain professions such as bus driving to become obsolete. We can say with certainty that the answer is “yes” but do consider these three points:

• i. It will be some time before such technology is ready for mass deployment

• ii. With driverless buses, we need more service controllers and operations managers

• iii. SGBA will be here to help bus professional be ready for future transitions

In other words, we will need bus captains for a fairly long time still and please don’t worry, there are other job roles to be filled and we will have the ability to help you make the switch.

In closing, I wish to thank the members of the PT STC for their contributions in drawing up the Sectoral Manpower Plan. In particular, the NTWU has been an outstanding partner. In fact, NTWU initiated the PTTC which was the earlier incarnation of the PT STC. Furthermore, the smooth transition to the Bus Contracting Model thus far is due in no small part to the extensive ground work of the NTWU. Thank you, brothers and sisters!

In the spirit of tripartism, our manpower plans will involve NTWU, the public operators and government agencies. Our immediate goal is to ramp up the pool of bus captains over the next five years to around 12,000. More importantly, our aim is to transform the bus profession so that it is more attractive, skills-intensive and respected. In particular, we will help the Singaporean Core of bus professionals enjoy good career development and be ready for future transitions.

Join us for this worthwhile journey. Thank you.

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