Tech giant Facebook has partnered Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU) to launch a pilot programme aimed at developing local talent in the data centre sector.
The new nine-month pilot programme – by the Centre for Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE@NTU) – will offer four Specialist Certificates and one Graduate Certificate in the pilot phase, starting August 2020.
The four Specialist Certificate programmes are in design engineering, network engineering, site operations, and facility operations; while the Graduate Certificate programme is in international construction management.
The courses are developed in conjunction with NTU College of Engineering, NTU said in a statement. They are aimed at training and upskilling local engineering talent to fill the increasing demand for specialists in the data centre industry.
The programme will run alongside NTU undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum, both on campus and online. It is open to the public and eligible for funding and mid-career enhanced subsidy provided by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG).
"We are very proud to contribute towards growing local talent in the data centre sector through our collaboration with Facebook," said Professor Ling San, NTU Deputy President and Provost. "With NTU's deep expertise in emerging technologies and Facebook's data centre expertise, participants of our new certificate programmes will be able to benefit from a world-class education and stand in good stead in the future job market."
Facebook broke ground on their first Asia-based data centre in Singapore in 2018, which will be operational in a few years' time.
Commenting on the collaboration, Kiren Kumar, Assistant Chief Executive, Digital Industry and Talent Group at the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), said, "IMDA would like to thank NTU Singapore and Facebook for this partnership to train and groom more local talent for the data centre segment of our ICT sector."