The chief executive officers for two new statutory boards meant to drive and coordinate a national initiative to encourage lifelong learning were announced yesterday.
SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), under the Ministry of Education (MOE), will be helmed by Mr Ng Cher Pong. He will also take on the role of deputy secretary (SkillsFuture) at MOE. His date of appointment has not been fixed yet.
Mr Ng has been CEO of the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) since November 2013. He was also previously deputy secretary (Services) and deputy secretary (Policy) at MOE.
The CEO for the other new statutory board, Workforce Singapore (WSG), under the Ministry of Manpower, is Mr Tan Choon Shian.
Mr Tan is the principal and CEO of Singapore Polytechnic and has been a WDA board member since 2013. He served as deputy managing director of the Economic Development Board before joining the polytechnic. His appointment as WSG CEO takes effect from Aug 1.
The two statutory boards were announced in January as part of efforts to enhance the competitiveness of Singaporeans as well as to ensure they would have quality jobs in the long term.
On Monday, Bills that covered the establishment of SSG and WSG were introduced in Parliament. The two agencies are expected to be established in the fourth quarter of 2016, after which WDA will be reconstituted into the WSG.
Meanwhile, the Council for Private Education (CPE) will be subsumed under SSG.
WDA was established in 2003 and deals with training and skills upgrading while CPE, meant to regulate and lift standards of the local private education sector, was established in 2009.
Jan Lee
