SINGAPORE — Further extending its reach to professionals, the labour movement has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with four more professional associations, which will see them work together to develop career and skills progression plans for Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs).

This brings the total number of U Associate partners to 26, more than double from just 12 since January last year. 

In a blog post on Thursday (Feb 18), National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) secretary-general Chan Chun Sing, who was present for the signing of the MOUs at the U Associate Convention, said many foreign companies were surprised that the NTUC extended its reach to all workers, including PMEs and non-unionised workers in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and helped both companies and workers “grow the pie together”.

“To us, companies and workers doing well are both sides of the same coin,” said Mr Chan. 

“What we need to imagine are even more creative ways to reach out to all workers. The universe of what we can do for our workers is only limited by our imagination.” He cited a recent example of a foreign high-tech company based here, which was surprised that the union wanted to help them with recruitment and training, instead of fighting for collective agreements and collective bargaining.

“We shared with them how the unions could value-add to industrial relations by mobilising workers to embrace upgrading and lifelong learning,” said Mr Chan. A few weeks later, the company enrolled all their workers into the union and paid for their membership — “a departure from their company practice elsewhere to avoid working with any unions”. 

Mr Chan added that the NTUC aimed to be unusual in at least three ways: By constantly reinventing itself to care for all workers, constantly ensuring that workers remain competitive, and growing from “strength to strength” to buck the worldwide trend of declining numbers and relevance of unions. 

In the coming years, the NTUC would continue to help PMEs ensure that their professional standards are “current and relevant”, and see that they are able to continuously access courses to upgrade themselves. 

“Beyond their vertical professional track, we want to give them that horizontal exposure. This is most important for them to compete for the very top jobs in their respective industries,” Mr Chan told reporters at the convention. “When you rise up to the C-suite, you must not only be competent professionally, you must have cross-sector exposure.”

The four new associations joining the U Associate programme are the Direct Marketing Association of Singapore (DMAS), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association of Psychotherapists and Counsellors (Singapore) (APACS) and the Singapore Association of Administrative Professionals (SAAP).

“One of the things we’re starting to see, given now we have 26 associations, (there are) a lot of opportunities to find collaboration. We haven’t really had the vehicle to bring us together and build something bigger together,” said DMAS chairman Lisa Watson. 

So far, the U Associate Programme has yielded a Young Engineers Leadership Programme, grooming budding professionals into leaders. The first batch of 199 engineers graduated last October. 

Starting next month, a Workplace Safety and Health Professionals Leadership Programme will allow professionals to learn the life skills needed to tackle complex situations. 

Apart from the expansion of the U Associate Programme, the labour movement also announced the new U Associate Leaders’ Circle, comprising leaders of the various U Associate partners. 

The group will advise the NTUC on matters relating to PMEs, and discuss issues affecting their industry with Mr Chan in a quarterly roundtable dialogue, starting April. 

NTUC will also work with the group to identify skill gaps in the market, and develop sectoral progression programmes. Where appropriate, cross-sector collaborations will also be done.