Jointly organised by the Singapore Bus Academy (SGBA)[1] and the NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), the second run of the Singapore BusTech Grand Challenge was held today. The Public Transport Career Fair jointly organised by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and e2i was also held in conjunction with the Challenge. This year’s event was graced by Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, Mr Chee Hong Tat, who presented the first prize to the bus technicians winning team and a special “Superstar” award to the top scoring technician for all segments.
2. The event aims to recognise technical skills across the public bus industry and the efforts of bus technicians who are key in keeping our buses running safely and reliably. It also aims to encourage them to pick up new skills such as obtaining certifications in maintenance and servicing of electric and hybrid buses to support our target of a 100% cleaner energy public bus fleet by 2040.
3. This year, a new category was launched for students from Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to showcase their interest in automotive engineering and inspire them to consider a technical career in land transport. These participants worked on prototypes to address maintenance-related challenges from our bus operators. The new students’ category comprised eight teams with participants competing from six IHLs – Institute of Technical Education, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic and Singapore Institute of Technology.
4. The participants were given an option to choose from two challenges to work on for the competition – to create a device that can allow bus technicians to inspect the undercarriage of the bus, or to come up with a prototype to improve the method of testing the conditions of air-conditioning systems on buses. As part of the competition, participating teams provided a proposal to design, build, showcase and demonstrate the prototype to the judges using an actual bus. The judges then evaluated each team’s proposed solution based on its originality and functionality; and their ability to convey the concepts and rationale behind their prototype selection and design.
5. The bus technicians competed in teams of two, with a total of eight teams from all four public bus operators – Go-Ahead Singapore, SBS Transit, SMRT Buses and Tower Transit Singapore. All the technicians competed in four different segments – mechanical, electrical, diagnostics and one theory test. Each station was designed and sponsored by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and IHLs who supported the assessment setup. The technicians were evaluated based on technical skills and competence in diagnosing the problem(s), using the appropriate tools (for example, use of torque wrench and diagnostic computer), technical knowledge and compliance with safety requirements, among others.
6. This year’s Public Transport Career Fair featured 600 job vacancies across the four public transport operators with roles ranging from bus captains, bus technicians, assistant engineers to station managers. For more information, visit https://event.e2i.com.sg/web/PTCFNov22.
