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The refreshed system will also include a social collaboration module to promote and strengthen collaborative learning.
To ensure a more personalised and data-driven learning experience for Singapore's Home Team officers, the Home Team Academy (HTA) has launched the Home Team Learning Management System (HTLMS) 2.0.
Announcing this at the HTA Workplan Seminar 2023, Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information & Second Minister for Home Affairs, highlighted the importance of continually enhancing training & learning in the Home Team.
As she further pointed out, this must include digital upskilling so that officers can optimise the benefits that technology brings to work and operations. "For example, our enforcement officers leverage in-house AI tools to keep abreast of the latest trends in scams, and detect as well as provide intelligence on cybercrime activities. Because scammers and bad actors that perpetrate malicious online crime are able to operate at a scale and speed that is very difficult for individuals to overcome. The use of these AI tools enables us to counter that. HTX also has an e-Commerce Surveillance Tool that uses AI to help enforcement officers to analyse online listings of contraband items, so that the officers’ time can be freed up to focus on higher-order tasks.
"Digital upskilling is similarly important for us, as HT leaders. We ourselves must be able to understand the opportunities that these tools can bring, as well as the risks that come along with them. Understanding data and being able to analyse it, as well as being familiar with technological advancements in areas such as AI and cloud computing allows us to drive transformation within our teams and to ensure continued mission success."
Talking more about the HTLMS2.0, Minister Teo said the system aims to benefit a wide range of users, in particular:
- Those who are involved in curriculum development can look forward to the new content builder, which utilises a simple 'click and drag' approach to reduce the time required to create e-learning packages.
- Evaluations and assessments can now also be completed within the system. Training coordinators will no longer need to manually collate evaluation and assessment results, but can easily extract the reports to generate results and findings.
- The refreshed system will also include a social collaboration module to promote and strengthen collaborative learning — officers enrolled in a course would be able to participate in course discussion forums to share insights, and best practices and clarify any potential questions in mind.
HTA is also looking to explore mobility options in future phases of the HTLMS2.0 development to allow officers to access HTLMS “anytime, anywhere” as part of continuous learning efforts within and outside the workplace.
Four centres of excellence in training & learning
Apart from the above, Minister Teo also shared that the HTA is working towards establishing four Centres of Excellence (CoEs) by 2025.
These four CoEs will focus on:
- leadership development in public safety and security
- simulation training for incident management
- evaluation and assessment
- online learning
The ‘leadership development in public safety and security’ and ‘simulation training for incident management’ CoEs aim to be the CoE at the whole-of-government (WOG), and international levels, the minister noted. In that vein, one of the key initiatives under the CoE in ‘leadership development in public safety and security’ is to strengthen the WOG crisis response.
To achieve this, HTA will set up a crisis management training steering committee chaired by the chief executive of the Home Team Academy, comprising members from the relevant Ministries involved in WOG crisis response. The committee will also oversee the development of a WOG Crisis Management Competency Framework and a WOG Crisis Management Capability Intervention Roadmap, to align the critical competencies required and the WOG training programmes offered.
Also announced in the speech, HTA is now developing the Next Generation Simulation System, following the success of the current Home Team Simulation System. The simulation system will utilise up-to-date technology, which would include interactive training and 360-degree sense-making for frontline individual training.
Lastly, HTA has been working closely with various strategic partners to further deepen HTA’s domain expertise in training and learning. This includes a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Institute of Police Management in February 2023 to exchange best practices in law enforcement training, leadership development, and training technology. HTA will also be establishing a partnership with Coventry University in July 2023 to tap on their expertise in the field of simulation training and leadership development.
To conclude, Minister Teo affirmed that training & learning is vital for Singapore's officers and the Home Team as an organisation: "It helps us adapt and stay ahead of changes in the security landscape.
"So let us embrace the opportunities to learn and develop so that we can together build a stronger Home Team and continue to keep Singapore and Singaporeans safe and secure."
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Lead image / Minister for Communications and Information & Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo Facebook
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