Question

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how many Singaporean workers have participated in the SkillsFuture Leadership Development Initiative and ASEAN Leadership Programme respectively; (b) what industries are these workers employed in at the time of participation; (c) what is the profile of these workers (age, gender, profession and years of work experience); and (d) how many of these workers have progressed into higher-value job roles or leadership roles as a result of participating in the SkillsFuture Leadership Development Initiative and ASEAN Leadership Programme.

 Oral Answer (to be attributed to Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Chee Hong Tat)

1. The SkillsFuture Leadership Development Initiative (LDI) aims to develop more Singaporeans as business leaders in their respective fields. This is achieved in two ways. First, LDI supports companies’ efforts to provide promising employees with on-the-job leadership opportunities. Second, LDI supports training providers to develop market- and sector-specific leadership programmes.
2. To-date, companies have committed to develop about 450 Singaporeans under LDI. The scheme is designed to address leadership development needs across different industries and career stages. Accordingly, participants come from diverse industries, including Electronics, Biomedical Sciences and Consumer Businesses, just to name a few. They also have a wide range of professional experience, from the entry level to more advanced stages of their career. Participants are identified by their companies based on merit and performance, regardless of age or gender. So we do not track these statistics.
3. In addition to company-centric programmes, another 80 Singaporeans have completed LDI programmes which focus on sectors and markets, such as the Singapore Semiconductor Leadership Accelerator Programme and the Asian Retail Leaders Programme. There are more cohorts in the pipeline. In particular, the ASEAN Leadership Programme is a new initiative that seeks to help business leaders better understand emerging markets, build networks, and advance their companies’ growth throughout South-East Asia. This will help develop Singapore leaders with the necessary expertise in ASEAN markets to operate confidently in the region. The inaugural run of the Programme will be in September this year, with a projected class size of 20 participants.
4. Strong business leaders are critical to a company’s success and viability. They are also important to our economy as a whole. We need leaders with vision, know-how and a "can-do" spirit to build and grow globally competitive businesses. The Government will continue partnering industry to help more Singaporeans realise their full potential as effective leaders. As to LDI and the ASEAN Leadership Programme specifically, these initiatives are still in their early stages. We have received good feedback so far. LDI participants have affirmed that such programmes are important to their development, and provide them with useful networking opportunities and industry insights. We will continue to engage employers and participants to assess the effectiveness of these programmes and make improvements along the way.