The Pacific Community (SPC) is working with the Singapore Civil Service College (CSC) to run a new leadership and management programme with its senior leaders.
SPC Director-General, Dr Colin Tukuitonga is sponsoring the programme in partnership with the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Civil Service College is for government employees and is a statutory board under the Public Service Division of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We are pleased to be working with CSC and see this programme as an important initiative to help build great capacity of our key senior managers. It represents a strong commitment to staff development and a great step forward in building greater leadership and management capacity within the Secretariat”, said Dr Colin Tukuitonga.
“The Pacific Community places great importance in being the leading scientific organisation in the region but in order to really deliver our mandate to our member countries, and to keep pace with the challenges of our business environment now, and in the future, we need great leaders. We need technical leaders who not only deliver top notch science/technical expertise, but who are also equally strong with the social science of inspiring their teams towards greater achievement and creating a work environment where staff give of their best”, added Dr Tukuitonga.
“One of the criticisms we have faced in the past is that we often spend so much time building the capacity of external agencies that we fail to ‘sharpen the saw’ as once highlighted by the late Stephen Covey, and build our own internal capacity. Hopefully, this seminar signals an important shift in that regard”, said the Director-General.
“I believe that true value in an organisation comes from and through its people. This is especially true of SPC. Therefore, we have thought very carefully about this program, its design and training content and I am confident that this week will be time well spent.”
Dr Tukuitonga joined other Pacific leaders and Ministers from the Pacific region earlier this year in a study tour of Singapore at the invitation of the Government.
“Singapore is a truly remarkable success story. It has transformed itself from the third world to the first in one generation. It is a small island with just over 700 square kilometres and no natural resources; it shares similar challenges with many small island nations of the Pacific. Yet somehow, Singapore has overcome these challenges and it now boasts one of the highest per capita incomes in the world (USD 55,000 per capita),” said Dr Tukuitonga. “We can learn a lot from Singapore.”
The facilitators for the CSC programme are Sarojini Padmanathan, a professional director with over 25 years of experience in the Singapore Public Sector and Cidi Wee, a trainer with the Civil Service College in Singapore. He has more than twenty years of management experience in foreign and local companies.
The leadership and management programme involves 20 directors and mid to senior level officials who are managing one or more teams at SPC. The 9-day programme will be held over a two-month period in Fiji.
Media contacts
Sandra Kailahi, SPC Acting Director of Communications, [email protected] or +687 54 69 52