There is a need to develop a stronger engineering core within the public service to harness the opportunities brought by rapid advances in technologies, asserted Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, while addressing the Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship award ceremony.
He said, “The public service must be allowed to challenge the status quo so that it can respond quickly to the constantly changing environment.”
Stressing on the need to develop talents in the engineering field, Teo said, “The PSC Scholarship (Engineering), introduced last December, is one way to strengthen Singapore’s engineering leadership pipeline.”
He added, “Those who received the scholarship will be groomed to be specialist leaders, undertaking stretch postings in one of three engineering clusters: Defence and security; information and communications technology and smart systems; as well as infrastructure and environment.
The Deputy Prime Minister said, “The technical demands of their postings will sharpen their domain skills and groom them into experts in their selected engineering field. This will bring valuable high-tech expertise to public service and advance its capabilities to address challenges in defence technology, climate change and efforts to transform Singapore into a Smart Nation.”
Speaking on the occasion, Eddie Teo, PSC chairman, said, “The scholarship recipients chose to study subjects related to either science, technology, engineering or mathematics. The favourable response from the applicants showed that the younger generation is eager to contribute to our goal of being a Government at the forefront in using technology to improve the lives of our people.”