New leadership programme to help civil servants become specialists

A new leadership programme was launched to help civil servants become specialists in their respective fields.

Called the Public Service Leadership (PSL) programme, it is targeted at officers with deep specialist skills. It covers five sectors - economy building, infrastructure and environment, security, social and central administration.

Mr Peter Ong, the head of civil service, said: "We are investing more resources and attention to develop these specialist leaders so that they can, in turn, train and develop other officers at various levels. This will lift capabilities for the entire public service."

To start with, some 500 civil servants will be placed in this programme, with the hope to eventually develop a pool of 1,000 such leaders.

The pool includes 220 management associates currently working in 16 ministries.

Other high calibre public officers identified by different agencies will also be included under the new programme, across different levels of seniority from fresh graduates to those already serving in the ministries and statutory boards.

They will be considered for the top Administrative Service scheme, if they are found suitable for a more generalist track. Administrative officers may also be placed on this new PSL programme if they want to follow a track that allows for more specialisation.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said: "The PSL programme will significantly widen and deepen our public sector leadership corps by developing a pool of capable leaders who are specialists with deep expertise in these five sectors.

"Specialist leaders will work with Administrative Officers who are generalist leaders integrating the work of agencies across the Government. This will enable the public service to build strong teams with a deeper range of governance capabilities, perspectives and expertise to better serve Singapore and Singaporeans."

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