Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security Partners Singapore Polytechnic and Singapore’s ITE Education Services To Train Policy Makers, Senior Management and TVET Instructors

07 Mar 2013

Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security Partners Singapore Polytechnic and Singapore’s ITE Education Services To Train Policy Makers, Senior Management and TVET Instructors

Temasek Foundation to fund two initiatives to support Myanmar’s technical and vocational training system

Singapore, 7 March 2013 - Temasek Foundation (TF), Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and ITE Education Services (ITEES) Singapore are partnering Myanmar’s Myanmar’s National Skill Standard Authority (NSSA) under the auspices of their Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security to embark on two capability development programmes that aim to support Myanmar’s vocational training system.

Temasek Foundation will be committing a grant of about S$1.7 million towards the two programmes. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Republic of the Union of Myanmar will fund the remaining cost of S$858,800.

His Excellency U Myint Thein, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Myanmar, was the Guest of Honour at an opening launch held in Yangon today, where Ministry of Labour signed two separate Memorandums of Understanding with SP and ITEES to formalise their partnerships. Mr Benedict Cheong, Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Foundation, together with Mr Lee Leck Seng, General Manager, Singapore Polytechnic International, and Dr Benjamin Tan, CEO/ITEES were present to witness the launch.

In 2012, TF funded its first TVET training programme in Myanmar through SP, to assist Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security to address the overall skills development framework in the country. Leading on from that initial programme, SP will now provide a second programme in workforce development training for 120 senior TVET officials to develop TVET policies and systems that can better regulate, monitor, and assess training, and provide national certification standards for TVET training for all nationally approved training centres across various ministries. At various points of the 3-year programme, some participants will also be selected specialist master trainers for further training in curriculum design and share their learning with another 250 TVET officials from various ministries and professional bodies in Myanmar. The SP programme is expected to be completed by 2016.

The pedagogy training programme led by ITEES aims to develop the skills of TVET instructors in the area of pedagogy skills for competency-based curriculum. Some 80 TVET instructors will commence their two-week training programme in Yangon in August 2013. Out of these 80 instructors, some 32 will be selected as Master Instructors and will be visiting Singapore in December 2013 for a 1-week immersion programme at ITE. This competency-based instructors training system is expected to benefit a total of 160 instructors over two runs of training. The 160 TVET master trainers will in turn train another 256 trainers through post-training sharing workshops after the completion of their training in order to multiply the benefits of the programme. The ITEES programme is expected to be completed by 2015.

Mr Benedict Cheong, Chief Executive Officer, Temasek Foundation, said: “We hope that our support of these two new programmes will play a part to build a network of leaders and educators who will help to bring about positive changes to the vocational education and training system in Myanmar.”

“Singapore Polytechnic is happy to share its expertise in the area of designing and developing curriculum based on the needs of the workforce with the Myanmar government. We aspire to make a positive and lasting contribution to the enhancement of Myanmar’s workforce development,” said SP Deputy Principal, Mr Lim Peng Hun.

Dr Benjamin Tan, CEO/ITEES, said: “ITEES is pleased to partner with TF and SP to share our TVET experience with Ministry of Labour, Myanmar. We are impressed by the determination of our counterparts to enhance the pedagogic competencies of its TVET instructors. We look forward to contributing in a small but meaningful way towards the transformation of Myanmar’s TVET system.”

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Media Contact details

Mr Frank Chua

Corporate Communications Officer

Singapore Polytechnic

T: 6870 7043 / M: 9771 7871

E: frank_chua@sp.edu.sg

Ms Dawn Low

Manager

ITE Education Services

T: 6590 2622 / M: 9833 9132

E: dawn_low@ite.edu.sg

Ms Diana Lee

Senior Associate, Communications

Temasek Foundation

T: 6828 6737 / M: 9652 0569

E: dianalee@temasekfoundation.org.sg

About National Skill Standard Authority of Myanmar

The National Skill Standard Authority comprises senior officials involved in workforce development policy setting and is chaired by the Deputy Minister (Ministry of Labour) with members comprising Director-Generals and senior management of various government ministries and professional organisations. The key responsibility of the National Skill Standard Authority is to regulate, lead, establish competency standards and conduct assessments for workforce development in Myanmar. It is also responsible for developing the national continuing education and training infrastructure to deliver training to meet the manpower development in each economic sector in Myanmar.

About Temasek Foundation (TF)

TF is a non-profit philanthropic organisation anchored in Singapore that seeks to contribute to sustainable growth and a bright future of hope and opportunities for people in Asia, The foundation works with partners to support programmes that develop people through healthcare, education and research, programmes that build bridges between peoples, programmes that build institutions of excellence through good governance and ethics, and programmes that rebuild lives and livelihoods affected by natural disasters.

About Singapore Polytechnic (www.sp.edu.sg)

Established in 1954 to meet the manpower needs identified by the government, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is Singapore’s first polytechnic. Its 10 academic schools offer 50 full-time diploma courses for its 15,970 students and courses are kept relevant through close links with industry and government bodies, as well as with various overseas institutions.

SP offers broad-based, multi-disciplinary and flexible curriculum dedicated to hands-on experience. It is committed to the development of its applied research and development capabilities to enhance the quality of teaching and commercialisation efforts. Through Design Thinking, SP offers a revolutionary approach to education, allowing its students to look at problems from different perspectives, and strike a dynamic balance between intuitive and analytical thinking to provide impactful solutions.

Among SP's 166,800 graduates are successful entrepreneurs, top executives in multinational and public-listed corporations, and well-known professionals, many of whom are captains of industries, university professors and researchers, and leaders in government.

SP is the first polytechnic to be awarded the President’s Award for the Environment in 2010 and the President's Social Service Award in 2011.

About ITE Education Services Pte Ltd (ITEES)

ITEES, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Singapore, was established in 2003 with the objective of sharing the ITE’s experience and expertise in TVET with the international community. Leveraging on more than 40 years of knowledge, capabilities and experience of ITE and its predecessor organisations, ITEES is able to help organisations meet the needs and challenges of TVET in a rapidly-changing global economy.