All smiles - Participants and facilitator of the Fundamentals of Project Management class conducted on 3 September 2013 at CapitaLand Institute of Management and Business
All smiles - Participants and facilitator of the Fundamentals of Project Management class conducted on 3 September 2013 at CapitaLand Institute of Management and Business

As one of Asia’s leading real estate companies, CapitaLand has many technical personnel among its 12,000 staff. These include executives and managers in project management, design management, facilities management and other specialist technical areas. These staff have made significant contributions to CapitaLand’s business growth.

Given that people matter to CapitaLand and are our greatest assets, the company invests resources to build and develop them. Under the leadership of Corporate HR, the Technical Trek Committee (TTC) was formed to look into developing a learning roadmap to develop the personal growth and professional skill set of CapitaLand’s technical personnel. The TTC, comprising HR personnel, senior technical experts from the various business units, and representatives from CapitaLand’s corporate learning institute, CapitaLand Institute of Management and Business (CLIMB), met to deliberate on developing a curriculum to meet the training needs of technical staff. Members of the TTC are committed to one objective: Building People .

Over the course of several months, the TTC members held meetings to deliberate on the curriculum. Each contributed significantly in different ways. Corporate HR personnel advised on the possible career paths for our technical staff based on their training and experiences, while senior technical colleagues provided expert guidance on the technical contents that should form part of the curriculum, and CLIMB personnel provided their guidance towards curriculum development and delivery.

The efforts of the TTC eventually paid off with the curriculum taking shape. The learning roadmap comprises four “camps”. Each camp comprises colleagues from specific job grades who undergo a series of training programmes which have been put together to train and develop their technical skill set.

In June 2013, the TTC launched the Technical Trek in CapitaLand. This was a milestone in the company’s “Building People” journey. In the months following, several programmes from Camp I were offered. These included “ Brand and Customer Assurance ”, “ Fundamentals of Project Management ”, and “ Fundamentals of Design Management ”. These programmes were developed and delivered by CapitaLand’s very own senior technical staff who are experts in their own rights and who, between them, have many years of experiences in the real estate industry. Other than academic input, our facilitators shared case studies with the participants by leveraging CapitaLand and other projects to bring realism to the classroom training. These programmes attracted not only the technical staff but also non-technical staff (e.g., HR personnel) who wanted a better understanding of what their technical colleagues do. That these programmes are appreciated by the participants is evidenced by the following feedback:

  • “I appreciate the speakers for taking the time to share with us. This shows the commitment of our senior management to develop people in CapitaLand.”
  • “I have personally benefitted a lot from this programme as it helps me better understand project management in CapitaLand.”

Although the Technical Trek is only in its infancy stage and is still being fine-tuned, we are encouraged. We will continue to “ Think Big, Start Small, and Build Deep ”. In 2014, CapitaLand’s staff can expect more programme from the Technical Trek for their personal growth and professional development.

The Technical Trek is an important milestone in the professional development of CapitaLand’s technical staff. It is offered in the spirit of “Building People to Build for People”. With a workforce that is constantly reinventing itself through ongoing training and development, CapitaLand is poised to grow from strength to strength, and to move forward and upward!

From The Building People Team in CapitaLand Institute of Management and Business