Chief Executive, Home Team Academy
Home Team colleagues and partners
1. A very good morning. I am pleased to join the Home Team Academy for your Workplan Seminar this year.
2. The Home Team has been doing well in maintaining safety and security. In international surveys, the Home Team has always been rated well. Singapore was ranked first in Gallup’s Law and Order Index 2022 and in The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2023, Singapore ranked among the top three (3) countries in its ‘Order and Security’ category, for the seventh time in a row.
3. This is a reflection of our officers’ competency and effectiveness, which in turn reflects the high quality of training provided by the Home Team Academy and the Home Team Departments (HTDs).
4. The Home Team Academy plays a critical role in driving Training and Learning (T&L) in the Home Team. As the Corporate University of the Ministry, the Home Team Academy curates knowledge of essential skills and drives the relevant training so as to enhance the Home Team’s capabilities. It also serves as a safe space for officers to experiment, learn and grow their skills to serve Singaporeans better.
5. In the past year, the Home Team Academy has achieved important milestones. This is especially pertinent as we approach the culmination of Home Team Transformation (or HTT) 2025 and plan for the next bound of transformation.
New Initiatives
6. The Home Team Academy rolled out several new initiatives in 2023.
(a) The Civilian Support Officers (CSO) Foundation Course to develop effective CSOs was formally launched after the pilot in 2022.
(b) In the past year, the Home Team Academy partnered the Civil Service College to curate version 2.0 of the Step Beyond Civilian Milestone Programme for Grade 10 and equivalent officers. Step Beyond 2.0 equips our middle managers with effective leadership skills to support growth at the self, team and whole-of-Home Team levels. The course was launched in February this year, which means there is now a full suite of refreshed and updated milestone training programmes for our civilian officers in the Home Team.
(c) The Home Team Academy also launched the Home Team Learning Management System 2.0, or HTLMS 2.0 for short. This was another milestone in the Home Team Academy’s efforts to enhance the e-learning experience for users. Our officers now have the flexibility to learn at their own time and pace outside of the classroom. In addition, HTLMS 2.0 provides officers with personalised learning dashboards to see their learning progress for courses, as well as more interactive features for officers across the Home Team Departments to share best practices with one another.
Professionalising our Officers
7. To help Home Team trainers become more professional in delivering training, the Home Team Academy partnered the Institute for Adult Learning to provide courses for our trainers to develop their expertise in adapting training design and delivery to cater to different learning needs. And to encourage our Trainers to continually deepen their training proficiency, annual Training Excellence Awards are given to trainers who take active steps to hone their craft and make a positive impact on their learners.
8. In the interest of developing and professionalising Home Team officers, the Home Team Academy had partnered the Singapore University of Social Sciences (or SUSS) in 2019 to launch the Bachelor of Public Safety and Security (Honours) Programme. The degree programme aims to help raise the overall level of professionalism of the security industry and meet the demand for trained security personnel in the security industry. The yearly acceptance has increased from 60 up to 200, and attracted many who are employed by, or intending to join the security industry.
9. In July last year, a new module in Cyber Safety and Information Security was included in the degree course, to underscore the growing significance of cyber safety and information security in the Home Team’s work. Our pioneer batch of 23 Home Team officers graduated from this degree programme in October 2023. There are presently 468 Home Team officers pursuing this course and I hope more will enrol in it.
10. As was mentioned by CE/HTA earlier, the Home Team Academy set up the Crisis Management Training Steering Committee (CMTSC) in 2023 to coordinate and strengthen crisis management training across the Public Service. This arose after gaps were uncovered in public agencies’ crisis response capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CMTSC comprises 10 ministries whose functions cut across the key crises domains. The HTA-led CMTSC has developed a Whole-of-Government (WOG) Crisis Management Capability Development Framework. The Framework identifies the key organisational capabilities and leadership competencies required of all agencies to effectively manage crises. The Framework was based on international crises management standards, WOG agencies’ experiences, and input from CMTSC members.
The Importance of Training & Learning in the Home Team
11. The Home Team’s operating environment will only become more complex in time to come. In my speech during this year’s Committee of Supply debate in Parliament in February, I had spoken about how scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and require a multi-pronged response involving government agencies, industry stakeholders and even the international community.
12. For the Home Team to prepare for the challenges ahead, we must continually support our officers’ learning needs and invest heavily in their training while balancing work commitments. To help officers upskill and re-skill, HTA must continually be on the look-out for new learning approaches, new technologies, updated methodologies, and apply them in our Training & Learning context.
13. I would like to highlight three (3) areas where the Home Team Academy and the wider Home Team Training & Learning Community should continue to build on to achieve our desired vision for Home Team Transformation 2030.
(a) Focus on Competencies
14. The first area is to continue to focus on building and deepening our officers’ functional competencies. This will prepare our officers and enable them to keep pace with the rapid changes in our operating environment and even be a step or two ahead.
15. On the part of the officers, they have to be proactive – plan their careers and take up training to upskill or re-skill to keep their competencies current and relevant. We will support their efforts by providing frameworks and roadmaps that offer a structured pathway to level up proficiency in various domains. One example is the Trainers’ Competency Development Roadmap which supports the professionalisation of trainers and curriculum developers.
16. To ensure that our training is effective and relevant for officers, the HTA has introduced post-course evaluation for its milestone programmes.
(b) Strengthen Home Team Culture
17. The second area is in the area of strengthening Home Team Culture. The HTA is in a strategic position to promote and reinforce the Home Team Culture through its cross-training programmes and the Home Team Gallery. The HTA is also rolling out a new training programme called the Home Team Joint Training for below Inspector ranks in FY2025. The programme is meant for Station Inspectors and equivalent from six (6) HTDs. This course complements the other cross-Home Team courses like the Home Team Foundation Course, the Advanced Leadership Programme and the Home Team Senior Command and Staff Course which reinforce the importance of operating as One Home Team.
(c) Instituting In-House Excellence
18. The third area is to ensure that the Home Team stays at the forefront of training and learning, and we need to build our in-house expertise. At the same time, we need to be able to benchmark and assess the standards of our training institutes, so that we know how well we are doing on this front.
19. To address this, the Training Competency Division in MHQ worked closely with the HTDs to develop the Training Institute Model of Excellence (TIME). TIME is a self-assessment and reporting tool for the various Home Team Training Institutes to evaluate their T&L practices. It also provides a systematic approach to levelling up training excellence in the Home Team. Since 2020, two cycles of TIME assessment have been conducted. The next assessment will take place later this year.
20. During the last assessment cycle in 2022, five Centres of Excellence (or CoEs) covering different aspects of Home Team T&L capabilities were identified. They are: Leadership, Trainer Effectiveness (Culture), Trainer Effectiveness (Training Approaches), Curriculum Effectiveness and Learning Networks. Each Centre of Excellence has a lead Home Team agency, which is responsible for driving the sharing of best practices and development of initiatives to push boundaries in its respective specialised area.
21. I am pleased to share that TIME won the “2024 Excellence in Practice Award” in the Learning and Development category of the International Association for Talent Development (or ATD) Awards. This is an internationally recognised achievement – it recognises excellence in talent development, and the awards are presented to organisations with practices that have demonstrated clear and measurable results of achieving organisational goals. Well done to our Training & Learning community for this internationally recognised achievement!
Conclusion
22. In conclusion, let me reiterate my appreciation to the Home Team Academy and the Home Team Training & Learning community for your good work in ensuring that Home Team officers are equipped with the skills they need to keep Singapore safe and secure, and continue to maintain high levels of public trust in the Home Team.
23. These are challenging and complex times, but they also present us with unprecedented opportunities to push the boundaries in Training & Learning.
24. Thank you.
