Singapore's move to build talent with overseas exposure picks up steam

Singapore's move to build a pipeline of global-ready talent and corporate leaders is picking up pace.

On Tuesday, NTUC and the Economic Development Board tied up for the first time to launch a programme to provide promising young executives international exposure. Separately, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore also said that it has awarded 13 scholarships to groom the next generation of talent to take on an international portfolio.

The tie-up programme between the labour movement and the investment promotion body, the U Future Leaders Global Programme, "aims to identify young and promising Singaporeans from participating organisations, provide them with international exposure and opportunities to build key leadership attributes and develop relevant competencies" that could move them up the corporate ladder fast. It also aims to get more MNCs to groom aspiring Singaporeans to helm future leadership roles.

NTUC said in a press release that the programme is open to companies which are part of its U Circle of Friends. Six MNCs which have made Singapore their regional headquarters are in the pilot programme. They are Dentsu Aegis Network, Diageo, Mastercard Asia Pacific, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Yum! Asia Franchise.

The need to encourage Singapore talent to gain overseas experience was pushed for in a Future Leaders Summit last year by NTUC chief Chan Chun Sing. This has been underscored in a study by Linkedln and NTUC, which found more than half of the corporate executives covered in the study have worked or studied abroad. The IE scholarships were given under its Young Talent (YTP) and Undergraduate Scholarship programmes - eight for the YTP and five for the undergraduate programme. The YTP was launched in 2013 and has 16 industry partners, with six which just came on board.

This article was first published on Aug 24, 2016.
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