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Robots, apps, and cloud technology: How digital skills are preparing frontliners for the future of work
After attending an NTUC LearningHub course on the digital workplace, Mr Desmond Soh Chiang Bak is inspired to contribute to his company’s ongoing digital drive
Mr Desmond Soh working with his colleague, Diyana Hashmy, to trial the use of a robot, EXR-2, at Shell Jurong Island’s Production Unit 2, which is equipped with sensors to record sight, sound, and gas composition. PHOTO: SHELL
Mr Desmond Soh, 44, a production trainer at global energy company Shell, used to spend a significant part of his work day on administrative tasks such as emailing and following up on documents requiring his colleagues’ input.
After he attended a ‘Digital Workplace’ course offered by continuing education and training provider NTUC LearningHub in 2021, he discovered the endless possibilities digitalisation could offer. Through the course, he learned to tap into useful online applications and tools, which enabled him to improve his efficiency and productivity at work.
Today, Mr Soh relies on cloud-based documents that he and his colleagues can work on together in real-time, as well as Microsoft’s Power Automate platform to email documents to relevant stakeholders efficiently.
“There has been a huge change in the way I work. Now, I can devote more time to higher-value tasks, such as conducting more hands-on practice and quality feedback sessions with my trainees,” he shares.
More importantly, the course ignited in him a newfound passion to further pursue the potential of digitalisation as part of Shell’s ongoing digital drive, as well as encourage his colleagues to do the same.
In March last year, Mr Soh joined a team at Shell that is piloting the use of a robotic rover in the firm’s plants, to take readings from pumps, valves, pressure gauges and other equipment – a task that is currently done by technicians manually.
The ongoing trial aims to assess if robots can do this to gather more and better quality data, while employees can focus on higher-value work, such as handling exceptional situations and equipment maintenance planning.
With his newly acquired skills and keen interest, Mr Soh also collaborated with colleagues from the IT department to develop an app to log visitors in to Shell’s processing plant on Jurong Island. This project is part of Shell’s ongoing global programme to encourage employees to develop apps that can help them in their work.
“When people visit our plant, they can use the app instead of filling out a physical logbook, which is more convenient and efficient. We are testing the app to gather users’ feedback for fine-tuning before the official rollout,” he says.
Riding on the wave of digitalisation, Mr Soh also promotes the use of tools to digitally represent various systems and processes at work. The training he conducts also includes teaching technicians how to access the real-time data available in these digital representations of the plant, such as an equipment’s temperature and gas pressure, for troubleshooting and process optimisation.
Mr Soh credits the NTUC LearningHub trainer for igniting his passion for digitalisation. “The trainer was friendly, experienced, and knowledgeable, and he conducted the course with a lot of hands-on practice and real-world applications. It was a good introduction to how we can work better in a digitalised world.”
Learning for the future
Mr Soh’s journey mirrors that of many others in Shell. He discovered the ‘Digital Workplace’ course through the Joint Capability Council (JCC), which was set up by Shell Singapore and the Singapore Shell Employees’ Union in 2020 to upskill employees to be future-relevant.
The JCC works with partners such as NTUC LearningHub to provide training in different areas, from digital literacy and data analytics to emerging technologies. The JCC aims to benefit about 1,000 Shell Singapore frontliners, such as Process and Maintenance technicians, which is over 30 per cent of the firm’s local workforce.
Mr Ernest Lee, head of human resources for Shell companies in Singapore and Indonesia, says that this is part of Shell’s drive to foster a “learner mindset” as it repurposes its business to become a net-zero emissions energy company by 2050.
“We want to empower staff to innovate and try new things, learn together from challenges and successes, and collectively achieve better outcomes and performance,” he explains.
He adds that the partnership between Shell and NTUC LearningHub has benefited the firm and its employees in many ways. “NTUC LearningHub is one of the training partners that we rely on to deliver our health, safety, security and environmental programmes, which are critical to ensuring that we continue to offer a safe, compliant and caring work environment.”
“It has been able to support our employees’ learning needs through its diverse courses and delivery platforms.”
To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped more than 26,000 organisations, and offered over 2.6 million training places across over 2,900 courses. As a SkillsFuture Singapore approved continuing education and training centre for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, NTUC LearningHub offers a wide range of courses such as data analytics, cloud computing, automation, and more to empower companies to develop digital competencies and to equip their employees with the relevant digital skills.
As for Mr Soh, he is excited to delve further into the world of digitalisation and to pick up more applicable skills including the use of power apps. He says: “I am interested to learn about Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other digital-related fields such as coding and data visualisation, so that I can be a part of the workplace of the future.”
