AETOS officers to be upskilled with expanded competencies
In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing witnessed by Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Mr Ng Chee Meng, and Group Chief Executive Officer of Surbana Jurong Group, Mr Wong Heang Fine, AETOS has committed to work with the Union of Security Employees (USE) to form a Company Training Committee (CTC) aimed at upskilling its security officers by deepening their core skills and diversifying their competencies; with a view to transform the role of a security officer and make security a career of choice.
The CTC will equip AETOS security officers with expanded competencies to complement their security skillsets. Currently, AETOS officers are required to attend digital literacy and customer service WSQ courses, in addition to the basic licensing units. By becoming more digitally-savvy, the officers are better able to utilise technology solutions to enhance their productivity in their daily operations. Another objective of the CTC is to uplift the role of the security officers beyond just “guarding”. Officers will be taught fundamental skills in facilities management and equipped with Company Emergency Response Team knowledge. The former will allow officers to identify and report basic building infrastructure faults, shortening the rectification process by the building management, while the latter will empower them to help control incidents and minimise injuries in the event of an emergency.
With these added competencies, the officers can remain relevant and future-ready, and can provide additional value to the clients in terms of productivity and integrated solutions. Through this partnership, more than 1,000 officers will stand to benefit from better career progression, job prospects and possibly wages in line with their newly-acquired skillsets in the near future.
Aside from being upskilled and gaining expanded competencies, officers can also enjoy a longer career and strengthen their lifelong employability, with AETOS raising the retirement and re-employment age to 65 and 70 respectively from next month, ahead of the national implementation deadline of 2030.
Mr Alfred Fox, Executive Director and CEO of AETOS Holdings said, “Developing Our People is one of the key thrusts of AETOS’ transformation plan to become an integrated and future-ready service provider. Our employees have always been at the heart of our business and we will ensure that they remain resilient, relevant and prepared for the future. Through this partnership with USE, we are pleased to pledge our commitment to equip our officers with the necessary skills and integrated competencies to help drive changes in the security industry, create new value and productivity for our clients, and help our officers gain an advantage in terms of career prospects and personal development.”
Mr Raymond Chin, General Secretary of the Union of Security Employees said, “USE has been working with the industry towards transforming the security sector. Through the introduction of the Progressive Wage Model in 2014 to the current focus on driving Outcome-based Contracting, our vision is to ensure better work prospects and better wages for our officers. We have studied how countries like Sweden and Australia have been able to make good progress in these areas, and this CTC is our first step with our unionised agency AETOS towards that end.”
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