To bolster the competitiveness of Singapore's manufacturing sector, a new industry-led training programme office will plan ways to ensure the workforce has emerging know-how.
Launched yesterday, the Advanced Manufacturing Training Academy (Amta) will be located at the Jurong Innovation District (JID) manufacturing hub, which has attracted about $420 million in investments over the past year.
The Amta programme office will work with schools and training providers to design new courses to help workers excel, as Singapore establishes itself as an advanced manufacturing hub. It will also work to predict what skills and knowledge such workers will need to meet future industry requirements.
Amta was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat yesterday during the Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific conference.
It will be supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Enterprise Singapore. Also contributing to the academy are the Nanyang Technological University and SkillsFuture Singapore.
Amta will be governed by a training council comprising institutes of higher learning, public agencies and unions, and will be led by the former managing director and Singapore country manager of Micron Semiconductor Asia, Mr Lee Kok Choy.
"Amta aspires to collaborate with strategic partners to plan and deliver training to meet industry needs and strengthen Singapore's manufacturing competitiveness against the backdrop of rapidly changing technology trends," said Mr Lee, who is also the chairman of Temasek Polytechnic's board of governors.
Amta's location in the JID is strategic, given plans to make the district a one-stop advanced manufacturing hub for Singapore by bringing together researchers, students, innovators and businesses to develop products and services of the future. The first phase of the 600ha JID is expected to be completed around 2022, with the district creating over 95,000 new jobs.
Singapore government agency JTC, which is developing the district, said yesterday that despite disruptions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, JID has attracted about $420 million in new investments over the past year.
Last week, South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai marked the groundbreaking of its new innovation centre at JID, which will be ready by 2022. Besides Hyundai, other companies that will be opening facilities in the JID include imaging product manufacturer Konica Minolta, robotics developer Fanuc and engineering company Bosch Rexroth.
Meanwhile yesterday, EDB said it would be partnering the World Economic Forum to globally expand the Singapore-developed Smart Industry Readiness Index (Siri), which spells out ways manufacturing companies can transform to meet future challenges.
The aim of the partnership is to make Siri an internationally recognised standard for Industry 4.0 transformation. Industry 4.0 refers to a new phase in the industrial revolution that focuses heavily on technologies like artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning and data analytics to optimise how goods are manufactured.
To encourage the global adoption of the index, 90 certified Siri assessors will be trained over the next 18 months. These assessors will work to conduct between 500 and 750 new official Siri assessments by the end of next year. Over 350 firms that come from more than 15 countries and are based here have completed such assessments since the index was launched in November 2017.
