Rolls-Royce, ITE and WDA to enhance skills and knowledge in Singapore's aerospace and marine industries

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has signed two agreements with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to enhance the level of skills within Singapore’s aerospace manufacturing and marine industries. These agreements enable a series of new, specialist courses to be developed and delivered, which will equip the engineers of the future with the technical skills needed by the aerospace and marine industries.

Jonathan Asherson, Regional Director, Southeast Asia, Rolls-Royce, said: “Rolls-Royce has a long and proud history in Singapore and we are investing heavily in new state of the art facilities at Seletar. When these are complete, we will be manufacturing leading-edge technology and we will need to ensure that there is a strong supply of world-class skills available. Partnering with ITE, Rolls-Royce will establish a strong platform to develop the critical skills that our industry will need to stay at the cutting-edge long into the future.”

Mr Bruce Poh, Director & CEO, ITE, said: “As part of ITE’s hallmark authentic learning approach, we seek greater connectivity with world-leading industry players to allow our students to be exposed to real-life industry projects and applications.   We are therefore very pleased with this collaboration with Rolls-Royce. I am confident that this partnership will help ITE nurture a core of highly-skilled talent who will propel the aerospace and marine industries to greater heights.”

The contracts consist of an agreement for the provision of core skills in aerospace manufacturing, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop courses and promote information sharing in the fields of aircraft and marine propulsion.

Rolls-Royce and ITE will also be working with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) to develop 11 new aerospace manufacturing programmes. This will be part of the Precision Engineering Workforce Skills Qualifications (PE WSQ) framework and will be pegged at Higher and Advanced Certificate levels.

Through the programmes, technical personnel are set to benefit from new specialised skills such as non-destructive testing, diffusion bonding, optical digitizing, and laser cutting technology. ITE will be responsible for the development and training of the WSQ courses.

 “WDA is pleased to partner Rolls-Royce and ITE to develop new capabilities and up-skill workers to support the aerospace manufacturing. I believe that the skills and knowledge trainees acquire through the WSQ programmes will not only be useful to their career but also in contributing towards the future growth of aero-manufacturing,” said Ms Julia Ng, Director, Manufacturing and Construction Division, Singapore Workforce Development Agency.

Under the MOU, Rolls-Royce will offer a number of scholarships annually to students pursuing the Nitec in Aerospace Technology. Recipients of the scholarship and ITE staff will have the opportunity to work at Rolls-Royce facilities in or outside Singapore and collaborate on relevant joint projects.

In 2009, Singapore was chosen by Rolls-Royce as the location for a new facility to manufacture state-of-the-art wide chord fan blades (WCFB). Construction of the Rolls-Royce Seletar campus, which will include a regional training centre and an Advanced Technology Centre, began earlier this year and total investment will exceed S$700m and create 500 new, highly skilled jobs.