SINGAPORE - Rail engineers in Singapore will now be able to work towards becoming chartered engineers.

A memorandum of understanding was signed on Friday between the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), the Land Transport Authority, Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and, public transport operators SMRT and SBS Transit. The MOU sets out a common set of railway engineering industry standards for these engineers to gain their accreditation.

Senior Minister of State (Transport and Finance) Mrs Josephine Teo, said that move would help meet the increasing demand for engineering talent in Singapore.

"The math is simple: the more extensive our rail network, the more rail engineers we need,"she said. The chartered engineer accreditation programme would raise the professional standing of rail engineers, she added.

LTA's chief executive, Chew Men Leong said: "With the building of new rail lines and the doubling of our range network to about 360km by 2030, it is critical that we have engineers with the knowledge and expertise to plan, build, operate and maintain the rail system."

Both operators are providing their engineers with a career pathway to attain the accreditation.

SMRT will offer its rail engineers academic sponsorship to various institutes of education, in-house partnership with local universities and industry experts, industrial exchanges with partner companies and mentorship opportunities within the company, among other things.

Meanwhile, SBST said it will support the efforts of its engineers to become accredited by granting them study leave and sponsoring related fees.

Application for accreditation starts at the end of this year.