SINGAPORE - The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore Computer Society (SCS) have signed an agreement to bring on board 8,000 potential SCS members into the labour movement.

This was the first step towards the goal of reaching out to 100,000 information technology (IT) professionals, in a bid to better serve the needs of this specific group of workers.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed on Tuesday between Mr Chak Kong Soon, president of SCS, and Mr Vivek Kumar, secretary of the NTUC Membership Council, at the U Associate Servant Leadership Seminar.

The signing was witnessed by Mr Patrick Tay, NTUC assistant secretary-general and director of its PME unit.

NTUC will work with SCS to develop professional upgrading programmes which would help SCC members cope with changes in the IT landscape. An example would be the Future Leaders Series for IT Professionals which will commence in the second quarter of 2015.

Plans to develop a strategic programme to re-train and place mature IT professionals are also in the pipeline.

NTUC's junior membership arm, nEbO, and the SCS Student Chapter are also collaborating to strengthen outreach to IT students through a series of dialogue sessions and career talks with industry leaders.

Mr Chak said the collaboration will create new opportunities for IT professionals in Singapore.

"This creates an opportunity for members to meet like-minded counterparts, and share their knowledge and experiences with one another, he said.

"Through this partnership, we hope to increase the level of professionalism and enhance our infocomm workforce".