SBS Transit sends duo to join ‘Olympics of vocational skills’ for rail vehicle technology

LYON, France - Growing up, Mr Muhamad Izuddin Zainudin had always been fascinated with trains, and, to date, has amassed a collection of 20 Lego train sets.

Now at 22 years of age, he represented Singapore on the global stage in a competition, dubbed the “Olympics of vocational skills”, testing his expertise in trains and the technology behind rail vehicles.

He was one of a pair of competitors from the Republic in a skill area called rail vehicle technology who joined the WorldSkills Competition – known as the gold standard for skills excellence – in Lyon, France.

The event, held from Sept 10 to 15, saw 35 young people from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), polytechnics and transport operator SBS Transit representing Singapore across 30 skill areas.

Unlike the rest of the contingent representing the polytechnics and ITE, Mr Izuddin and teammate Mohamed Rady Mohamed Sany are from SBS Transit.

This is the first time that a Singapore organisation other than an educational institution is on board WorldSkills.

Currently pursuing his work-study diploma in land transport engineering (rail), Mr Izuddin splits his weekdays toggling between work at SBS Transit and going to ITE College West for theory and practical lessons. He will graduate in October.

Mr Rady, also 22, has been working as a technician at SBS Transit since May 2023, after completing his Nitec in Automotive Engineering in ITE College West.

SBS Transit group chief executive Jeffrey Sim, who attended the event in Lyon, said the duo were chosen after an internal selection, based on their aptitude.

“We chose our best technicians meeting all the qualifying criteria,” he added.

Mr Sim, who is also the chief expert of Rapid Transit Systems for WorldSkills Singapore, said that SBS Transit pushed for the inclusion of rail vehicle technology as a tested skill at the WorldSkills Singapore in 2018.

The skill was later added at the WorldSkills Asean level in 2023.

Mr Sim hopes that the field will be recognised as a full skill by the next international WorldSkills contest in China, in 2026.

Among the 30 skills Singapore was taking part in, rail vehicle technology is the only exhibition skill where competitors are ranked according to their performance instead of being given gold, silver and bronze medals.

Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong competed in this area in Lyon. Competitors had to carry out inspections, maintenance and repair, and general troubleshooting of rail vehicle parts. They had to work in a team, with an understanding of a wide range of technologies, including door operations, power distribution, brakes and wheels.

In Lyon, the Singapore pair worked together for four days to complete different tasks, such as installing passenger service doors and using software to maintain rail wheel sets. Each day, they spent four hours on these tasks.

Training for Mr Izuddin and Mr Rady began in April. It included a six-day trip to China in August to practise using equipment that was not available in Singapore.

Although they did not have the luxury of training as rigorously as participants from the ITE and polytechnics, Mr Rady said the nature of their work at SBS Transit prepared them for the competition.

The trip to China also allowed him to network with and learn from competitors from other countries.

Mr Izuddin said he hopes prospective employers will appreciate this competition experience under his belt, especially if he does well. He is confident he and Mr Rady did their best despite the stressful conditions at the competition.

“There was pressure, because the assessors were looking very closely at what we were doing. But we were able to focus and just concentrate on our task,” he said.

Mr Rady added: “There were also huge crowds walking around the booths and looking at us, trying to understand what we were doing. We had to block that out and focus.”

Mr Sim said that one of the reasons SBS Transit is supporting this skill at the WorldSkills competitions is that the railway industry is a sunrise industry in Singapore, which offers good careers to young people.

“We have two new lines coming up, the Jurong Region Line and the Cross Island Line,” he said, adding that careers in rail vehicle technology do not necessarily involve hot and dirty work environments, as some might perceive them to be, but, rather, a lot of different modern technologies.

“We use condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, robotics and artificial intelligence. So it’s really quite a high-tech industry that not many of our kids know about... We want to raise awareness and get a good share of talent from Singapore.”