Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower announced that Chew Hock Yong, Permanent Secretary (Home Affairs Development), Ministry of Home Affairs, will succeed Lim Ming Yan as Chairman of the Workforce Singapore Board from 1 October 2022.

Chew has held several leadership positions within the public service, including as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social and Family Development, Second Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of National Development, and Chief Executive of the Land Transport Authority. He will be retiring from his role as Permanent Secretary (Home Affairs Development) on 1 November 2022 after 31 years of public service.

Under Yan’s leadership, Workforce Singapore played a key role in the development of Singapore’s workforce and became a key player in the employment facilitation ecosystem. The Ministry said Yan significantly scaled up career assistance for locals by expanding the reach and scale of Workforce Singapore’s physical service touchpoints and developing the MyCareersFuture portal into an important job-matching platform and online resource for employers and jobseekers. It also expanded its Career Conversion Programmes to cover a wide range of sectors and job roles.

The Ministry also announced four new Board members have been appointed to serve for a two-year term from 1 October 2022. They are:

 Low Soon Teck

Managing Director, Executive Office, Kuok (Singapore) Limited 
Raj Joshua Thomas
President, Security Association of Singapore
Partner, Wee Swee Teow LLP
Sharael Taha
Vice-President (Strategy and Project Management Office), Singapore Aero Engine Services
Member of Parliament
Ong Chin Yin
Chief People Officer, Grab

Two other members have been reappointed for a further two-year term from 1 October 2022. They are:

Deborah Ong

Chair of Audit and Risk Committee, Workforce Singapore

Teo Lay Lim

Chief Executive Officer, SPH Media Group

Workforce Singapore is a statutory board under the Ministry of Manpower that oversees the transformation of the local workforce and industry to meet ongoing economic challenges. It promotes the development, competitiveness, inclusiveness, and employability of all levels of the workforce to ensure all sectors of the economy are supported by a strong, inclusive Singaporean core.