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Speech at Official Opening of The Institute Of Process Industry

Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Manpower and Trade , Industry , Suntec Singapore

Employment practices Skills, training and development
Mr James Goh
President, Association of Process Industry

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and gentlemen

  1. Good morning. I am pleased to join you for the official inauguration of the Institute of Process Industry (IPI).
  2. This collaborative effort between ASPRI and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) is a commendable initiative. It aims to meet the future manpower development needs of the Process industry by exploiting the strengths of WDA’s Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) courses.

    State of the Process Industry in Singapore
  3. The manufacturing industry remains a cornerstone of our economic strategy. Within manufacturing, our process industry makes up one third of total manufacturing output. During the recession last year, output from one of the sub-sectors – the robust biomedical sector – helped to soften the slow-down of other sectors. We are fortunate to have a diversified economy and many engines of growth.
  4. Our Process industry enjoys a large and growing base with key projects coming onstream in Jurong Island and Tuas. The industry is expecting at least another $5 billion worth of investments over the next few years.
  5. Supporting the smooth operations and maintenance of the Process industry are many Engineering Service Providers (ESPs). How productive they are will add to the competitiveness of the Process industry.

    Role of ASPRI in the Process Supporting Industry
  6. ASPRI's mission is to help its ESP members achieve business excellence through training, mechanisation and system integration. ASPRI is not just contended with tackling immediate challenges. It also has its sight on raising the productive and innovative capacity of its members as its medium- to long-term priorities.
  7. This is why ASPRI has decided to work on a number of priority areas. Let me just highlight two of them.
  8. First, ASPRI is upgrading itself to have greater capacity to serve its members. In fact, ASPRI is one of the pioneer industry associations to receive support from SPRING Singapore and IE Singapore through the Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) Programme. Since April 2006, ASPRI has been awarded $2.4 million to undertake capacity building programs in Outsourcing Facilitation, Training and Development, and Internationalisation.
  9. Under LEAD, ASPRI has started to organise overseas missions in partnership with IE Singapore to explore business opportunities in South-East Asia and the Middle East.

    The Importance of Skills Training and Upgrading
  10. Secondly, ASPRI is helping its members to develop a core group of professionals comprising skilled mechanics, technicians and graduate engineers.
  11. Today's official launch of IPI reflects ASPRI's commitment to manpower development and skills upgrading.
  12. IPI's vision is to be a premier continuing education and training centre for competency-based learning in the Process industry. IPI has trained close to 2,000 workers from 35 companies since December 2008. WDA has awarded close to 5,000 WSQ Statements of Attainment (SOAs) to workers in the Process industry under the WSQ Certificate in Generic Manufacturing (Process), Certified Operations Specialist (COS) and Certified Operations Professional (COP) Programmes.
  13. I am told that IPI has set its sights on training another 4,500 workers over the next three years and expects about 10,000 SOAs to be awarded for new WSQ programmes in the pipeline.

    Towards a Regional Process Supporting Services Hub
  14. Moving forward, both WDA and ASPRI will roll out more WSQ programmes to cater to the diverse and growing needs of new skills needed in the Process industry. Let me give you a few examples:

    • A new WSQ Certificate in Process Technology for Engineering Services, comprising 11 courses, targeting at Plant Equipment Maintenance Technicians will commence next month;

    • The introduction of a WSQ Higher Certificate in Process Technology for Engineering Services, comprising 12 courses, in the second quarter of 2011, geared towards building a pool of competent Quality Assurance & Quality Control (QA/QC) Inspectors; and

    • Two new WSQ courses on Innovation and Productivity specially contextualised to productivity in the process and engineering services environment are also in the pipeline.
  15. In addition, ASPRI, in collaboration with NUS Professional Activities Centre and WDA, will also be rolling out WSQ courses in Engineering, Construction and Procurement as well as Leadership and Executive programmes by Q2 2011.
  16. With all existing and the new programmes in place, members of the process supporting industry will have a comprehensive suite of training resources at their disposal. I encourage every member of the industry to take full advantage of IPI’s training expertise for their own good.

    Conclusion
  17. The government, through the joint efforts of SPRING Singapore, IE Singapore and WDA, will continue to support ASPRI's quest for excellence. On this note, it is my pleasure to declare the Institute of Process Industry officially open. Thank you.