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MOUs signed at the 17th DT|UX Summit will support workforce transformation, care innovation and community support as Singapore's population ages

SINGAPORE, 23 October 2026 – Singapore Polytechnic (SP) will sign six Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) at its 17th Design Thinking | User Experience (DT|UX) Summit today, bringing together healthcare providers, unions, community care organisations and public-sector institutions to improve care services and redesign jobs for an ageing Singapore. Mr Desmond Tan, Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office and Deputy Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress, will deliver the opening remarks at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Centre.

The six partnerships address this challenge across three areas: healthcare workforce development, community care innovation, and public-sector capability building. The partners are the Civil Service College Singapore (CSC), the Association of Innovative Transdisciplinary Education (AITE), Vanguard Healthcare Pte Ltd, the Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU), Loving Heart Multi-Service Centre, and NHG Health, represented by Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI).

A workforce imperative: Designing for an ageing Singapore

Against this backdrop, the six partnerships will extend SP’s work beyond traditional training into non-clinical workforce transformation, care innovation and job redesign. The central challenge, as SP frames it, is not simply expanding clinical care capacity, but also building the skills, jobs, technology and community support that will enable more Singaporeans to age well in their communities.

Healthcare partnerships: Building an integrated care and workforce ecosystem

SP's partnership with HSEU will support healthcare workers as their roles evolve. The SP-HSEU CARE+ Workforce Transformation Programme will bring together workforce development, technology adoption, service design and career support within a common framework. The partnership will also explore full-qualification pathways alongside micro-credentials, giving workers more flexible options to balance learning with shift-based schedules. The aim is to build workforce resilience through continuous capability development embedded in career pathways, rather than one-off training.

Together with Vanguard Healthcare Pte Ltd, SP will turn care environments into living laboratories, allowing technology to be tested in real care settings. Combining Vanguard's operational care settings with SP's applied research, technical expertise and workforce-development capabilities, the partners will pilot solutions in automated monitoring, robotics, IoT, data analytics and workflow automation in care homes, alongside residents and caregivers.

The partnership with Loving Heart Multi-Service Centre adds a community-facing dimension. Structured around three pathways, Learn, Innovate, and Grow Impact, the collaboration creates space for credit-bearing learning, community-care innovation, student internships, and entrepreneurship, positioning Loving Heart’s social care setting as a testbed for practical, humanity-centred solutions.

CHI and SP intend to implement collaborative projects and programmes on innovation and value co-creation that address emerging healthcare, community care and workforce challenges, including AI Sprints, workflow and job redesign, service design for new care delivery models, consultancy, hackathons and innovation projects.

Beyond healthcare, SP’s partnership with CSC will apply design thinking and SP’s Humanity-Centred Design (HCD+) framework that has been trademarked to public-sector capability development including strengthening career longevity and workforce adaptability. The partnership will help public officers design more responsive, people-centred services.

Together, the partnerships mark SP’s transition from a provider of training to an architect of cross-sector workforce and innovation ecosystems, one that is uniquely positioned to bridge education, technology, design and real-world industry transformation.

Mr Soh Wai Wah, Principal and CEO of Singapore Polytechnic, said, "An ageing population changes not only the care people need, but also the work of those who support them. Technology alone is not enough; we must design it around the needs of residents, caregivers, and workers. Through these partnerships, SP will bring together our expertise in design, technology, and workforce development to help our partners improve care and prepare workers for changing roles."

Industry partnerships: Connecting design with national priorities

The Summit, held under the theme "Designing Systems That Care for People, Communities and the Futures We Share", will bring together leaders from government, industry, healthcare, social services and academia. Keynote speakers include Lillian Shieh, who is Senior Director of Design Practice at GovTech; Associate Professor Jawn Lim from the Singapore Institute of Technology, who will address human-centred AI and responsible innovation; and Dr Wong Sweet Fun, Senior Consultant at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, who will explore how design can support sustainable, inclusive futures for an ageing population.

The afternoon panel, “Designing Futures We Share”, will bring together Larry Yeung, Executive Director of Participate in Design, Esther Wong of Changi Airport Group, Loh Ghek Khim, Director of the Skills and Workforce Development Agency, and Alvin Ang of Vanguard Healthcare Pte Ltd. Moderated by Tang Soo Yin, Centre Director of the SP User Experience Centre, the discussion will examine how cross-sector and transdisciplinary collaboration can translate design thinking into practical and inclusive responses that support more resilient, ethical and sustainable systems.

The Summit is part of a wider DT|UX programme running from August to November, with workshops and design studios. Public pre-summit workshops include “Design Your Futures: Agility in Career” on 20 October, which uses SP's Humanity-Centred Design (HCD+) framework, and “Driving Responsible Innovation with Humanity-Centred Design” on 22 October, led by SP User Experience Centre practitioners and Dr Wong Sweet Fun.