PIONEER BATCH AWARDED NTU GRAD DIPLOMA IN MILITARY LEADERSHIP

Major (MAJ) Daniel Ng used to believe that he was an effective leader, until feedback from his trainees, colleagues and superiors showed that there was still room for improvement. While he excelled in tactics and managing resources, he needed to place more emphasis in nurturing his people.

That was in 2009, when MAJ Ng started his Command and Staff Course (CSC) under the Singapore Armed Forces-Nanyang Technological University (SAF-NTU) Continuing Education (CE) Master's Programme.

The CSC is the first phase of the programme where students study military courses in the area of military leadership, military studies and military technology co-taught by faculty from the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College and NTU. After which, they will pursue a Master's in an area of their choice in NTU. They will be awarded the Graduate Diploma in Military Leadership provided they complete all five courses at the Master's accredited level.

A feature of the CSC is the 360-degree feedback designed by the SAF Centre for Leadership Development and SAFTI Military Institute. It is conducted twice for all CSC trainees - at the beginning and at end of the course - to gauge their leadership progress.

"In this course, we did a lot of reflection and learnt about our shortcomings," said the the naval officer, who is Deputy Commanding Officer of 121 Squadron which operates the Fokker-50 Maritime Patrol Aircraft.

"It gave us the opportunity to hone our leadership skills by understanding the different styles and theories of leadership," he added.

"If my 'bandwidth' is only for achieving mission success, then I am only a good manager. In order to be a good commander, you need to have both good leadership and management skills."

Since then, MAJ Ng, who graduated from the SAF-NTU CE programme with a Master's Degree in Technology Management in 2013, interacts regularly with his crew about their careers and personal development.

He was among the pioneer batch of 21 SAF officers who received the graduate diploma at a ceremony held in NTU on 3 Apr. Under the programme, officers can also choose to graduate with only a Master's Degree if they do not complete five CSC modules at the Master's accredited level.

These 21 officers were also part of the pioneer batch of SAF-NTU CE Master's Programme graduates who obtained their Master's Degrees from NTU last July.

Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Eric Gooi, Head of SAF Education Office, said: "The SAF has always invested in our people to ensure that they are competent to operate in today's dynamic environment. The awarding of the Graduate Diploma in Military Leadership by NTU to our officers is another testament to the quality of our people and the rigour of SAF courses."

For MAJ Eric Goh, Commanding Officer of 12th Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Battalion, the opportunity to upgrade himself academically was something he enjoyed. An avid learner, he had attended night classes to obtain his first degree in Banking and Finance from the University of London through distance learning.

"In the past, we only had the Postgraduate Award for the senior commanders. The majority of the junior officers don't normally go beyond their first degree, but I think with this CE Master's Programme, they are looking forward to it," said the 35 year-old who obtained a Master's Degree in International Relations from NTU.

MAJ Garion Tan, who obtained a Master's Degree in Strategy from Nanyang Business School, had the chance to work with international schoolmates from various fields. He applied military leadership lessons that were taught in the first phase of the SAF-NTU CE Master s programme to lead them in academic projects.

"It gave me confidence that I could manage my leadership styles such that I could lead people who were also leaders in their own right," said the Branch Head in the Republic of Singapore Air Force's Air Intelligence Department.

The 38 year-old added: "In order to achieve mastery (in leadership), we have to train not only in the military context, but also have different touch points with people outside... and benchmark ourselves."