Professional Development Centre
The Centre for Professional Development (CPD) manages post-diploma programmes and CET programmes. The programmes are designed to suit industry needs, and can be customised specifically for organisations.
CPD also develops academic programmes in partnership with renowned universities overseas. These programmes provide a progression pathway for RP's more academically-inclined graduates as well graduates from other polytechnics to pursue their higher education aspirations.
In AY06-07, CPD offered, in collaboration with schools and centres of RP, several courses for established clients including TECH Semiconductor (Basic Electronics course), GNC of Global Active Group (Healthcare Retail certificate programme), Amway (Nutritional Health course), Air Force School (Learning and Facilitation courses), MOE schools (Problem-Based Learning courses), National Healthcare Group (Basic Traditional Chinese Medicine course), Real Estate and Construction Centre (Basic IT course) and Peoples’ Association (media-related course). CPD also held many short courses featuring a vast range of topics for the community and the public.
During the year, CPD formed alliances with strategic partners to jointly offer certificate programmes providing specific training to meet the professional development needs of targeted markets. The Internet Security and Cyberlaw programme delivered in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) for overseas delegates enjoyed another successful run, while the Certificate in Organisational Facilitation offered jointly with Facilitators Network Singapore drew keen participation from both public and private organisations. CPD also facilitated RP’s collaboration with Principals Academy Inc (PAI) – the enterprise arm of the Academy of Principals - which established an office in RP. This paved the way for a long-term strategic cooperation between the two organisations.
The Workforce Development Authority (WDA) has endorsed RP’s Certificate in Retail Healthcare and will be jointly promoting this certificate programme to other healthcare industries. All five sections of the retail curriculum of RP meets the competency standards of WDA and graduates of this certificate programme will receive a Standard of Achievement (SOA) for each of the sections.
CPD has submitted a Specialist Diploma in Wireless Communication and Networking to National Infocomm Competency Academy (NICA) for the national competency mapping. Application was made for the programme to be accepted either as a Professional Diploma or Specialist Diploma at the NICA level. This will ensure that a candidate, who does not have a formal diploma, would be able to receive at least a Professional Diploma from NICA upon graduating from this programme.
On the government front, CPD plays an instrumental role in managing relationships with agencies such as WDA and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to facilitate the development and delivery of competency-based training for the retail and infocomm technology sectors. To date, CPD has launched several courses that qualify for WDA’s Skills Development Fund (SDF), benefiting clients who send their employees for skills upgrading.