Real estate is required by all organisations to carry out their operations/trade; the cost of building space is second to staff costs and directly impacts operational costs and financial performance. Residential real estate on the other hand, represents the single largest investment for individuals.
Real estate management & maintenance plays a strategic role in preserving and enhancing real estate values. It ensures that buildings function efficiently and provide a healthy, safe and comfortable environment for occupants. Effective building maintenance and operations reduces energy consumption, extends building life and supports environmental sustainability.
The socio-technological-commercial demands of real estate stakeholders result in a wide spectrum of work and necessitates a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional approach to service delivery.
Overview of Real Estate Management & Maintenance Services
The quality of buildings and comfort and ambience in workplaces, health and tourist facilities and in homes reflects Singapore’s world-class city status. The costs of managing and maintaining buildings to sustain this global position is rising due to advancing technologies in new buildings, ageing of existing buildings and higher occupant expectations and demands. Clients are resorting to outsourcing to save costs, often without sufficient objective performance measures in place.
In Singapore, the real estate management & maintenance service industry has been slow in responding to market changes and demands. Management systems have hardly changed; attributes of the workforce testify to a mismatch between required and prevailing skills and knowledge. The industry remains highly fragmented and is inadequately organised to deliver the required proactive services.
Competition has driven prices to untenable levels, impacting occupant and client satisfaction. Given the labour intensive nature of the work, workforce quality will be crucial for levering on to gain a competitive edge and service.
A well-trained workforce equipped with multi-disciplinary and multi-tasking skills will collectively elevate service standards, provide value-add and stabilise cost increases. The multivariate nature of real estate management & maintenance demand requires an interdisciplinary and cross-sector approach to meet them; research and training must provide an integrative environment to achieve this.
The Job Re-Creation Programme (JRP) is an NTUC-led initiative which aims to raise the level of productivity as well as improve the image and work conditions of existing jobs to make them more attractive to Singaporeans.
It is part of the Re-employment Assistance Programme for Singaporeans (REAP), a programme launched jointly by Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and NTUC in January 2005 aimed at helping unemployed Singaporeans, especially those at risk of structural unemployment, to find and stay on in new jobs.
Property Officer Re-skilling Programme
Property Officer Re-skilling Programme News Coverage
Chairman of NTUC Tri-partite Committee on Job Re-creation and then-Deputy Secretary
General of NTUC, Mr Lim Swee Say, gives a speech at the Graduation Ceremony of the first intake of Re-skilled Property Officers.
Then-NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Mr Lim Swee Say with the SRP-STEER property officers and their employers, NTUC, WDA and RECC officers.
The Job Re-creation Programme-Real Estate Management and Maintenance Industry (JRP-REMMI) seeks to achieve the following target outcomes:
- Saving jobs
- Re-claiming jobs
- Enhancing employability
- Proactive creation of new jobs to meet foreseeable market needs
The JRP-REMMI process model provides an overview of the approach to re-design and re-create jobs.
The complementary Skills Redevelopment Programme-Real Estate Management & Maintenance Industry (SRP-REMMI) facilitates training and lifelong learning to achieve this end.
Interested job seekers who wish to join the industry can contact Job Re-creation Programme Sector Co-ordinator Real Estate & Construction Centre. Current job opportunities and training include Property Executives, Building Inspectors, Property Officers, Property Assistants and Building Custodians. Training is conducted by RECC’s sister company, the Real Estate and Construction Academy (RECA).
