Past Activities

q Through the years
go to Highlights of Activities through the years

On 20 April 1970, the pro-tem committee for the formation of SPC met and the following Office Bearers were elected:

Dr Phoon Wai-On (SMA) Chairman
Mr Rex Koh Kim Chuan(SIA) Deputy Chairman
Mr Chan Chee Wah (IES) Honorary Secretary
Mr Foo Meng Fong (SSA) Honorary Treasurer

On 11 July 1970, the inaugural meeting of the Board of Trustees was held with Representatives from the following seven professional bodies:

1. Institution of Engineers of Singapore
2. Singapore National Academy of Science
3. Singapore Dental Association
4. Singapore Institute of Surveyors
5. Singapore Medical Association
6. Singapore Institute of Architects
7. Singapore Society of Accountants

With a generous grant of $220,880 from the Commonwealth Foundation and the offer of 400 sqm premises at a reasonable rental from the Housing Development Board, the Singapore Professional Centre (SPC) was officially opened by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr S Rajaratnam on 18 January 1971 at the Outram Park Block.

The founding philosophy is to bring the professionals together and harness their unique combination of diversity and talents to build a better society not only for themselves but also more importantly, for Singapore.

The development of the Centre was summed up by SPC's former patron-in-chief, Dr Lee Chiaw Meng, as follows:

"When the Singapore Professional Centre was first established there were doubts about its viability. It had been predicted by many other organizations, which were established with great initial enthusiasm but were not able to sustain the interest of their members. It is not easy for an umbrella organization to be constantly on the move. This is particularly so for the SPC as it covers such diversified interest and most of the constituent organizations are fairly active in their own spheres. To compound the problem, the SPC is not well endowed financially.

Fortunately, the critics have been proven wrong……."

However, as the founder Chairman had observed so many years ago, "one of the problems which we have faced from the beginning, is the fact that professional men and women and sometime professional bodies do not quite see the need to have an inter-professional organization. In the case of uni-professional organization, the advantages are sometimes obvious. They share the interest in a common discipline, they join together for mutual protection, and they also share the desire to maintain good standards of practice in that particular profession."

It would seem that once fully fledged, the raison d'etre of an organization would be clear to all, but the SPC, it seems, can only grow if it is first able to justify its existence.

Over the years, the membership has indeed evolved and SPC today has 21 member associations, 250 individual members and 1 corporate member, with a total membership of over 7000.

In 2001, SPC celebrated its 30th Anniversary and if anyone goes through the various publications over the years, the list of activities the SPC has pursued since its inception has been hailed as laudable. This voluntary, non-profit organization has been constantly active throughout the years, from organising dialogue sessions, talks, seminars and exhibitions to regional and international conventions, each with a different emphasis and of varying scales, to meet the needs of its members and to fulfil its role as a corporate body towards the nation-building of Singapore. These activities have provided professionals, students and the general public numerous opportunities for networking, career guidance, continuing education and avenues to provide feedback and work with the government.

The country was experiencing drastic changes in all aspects- political, social and economical- after Singapore's independence in the mid-sixties, as a result of which massive nation-building programme were put in place by the government. It was felt then that the professionals could contribute to this national exercise, and through the vision and commitment of Dr Lee Kum Tatt, Convenor and Honorary Fellow, SPC, the Singapore Professional Centre was formed. Diversity in the group has enabled SPC to take a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach to identifying issues. Communication between the government and SPC was established via dialogue sessions and the Feedback Unit.

Dispelling the notion of professionals being of a different stock, SPC encouraged its members to volunteer their time and effort in community service. A major contribution to community work was the organization of a Urine/Blood Pressure Screening Programme which was launched and conducted at 69 community centres. The project was a follow-up to the National Health Campaign and was jointly organised by the People's Association and the National Kidney Foundation. More than 500 volunteers consisting of members and friends of various associations served in community centres from 1 October to 26 October 1980.

SPC also played a part in encouraging 169 professionals to volunteer their services for community projects of the People's Association in 1979. Recruitment through direct mailing recorded a total of more than 300 volunteers.

SPC has also mobilised volunteers for the Volunteer Social Service Bureau and the Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association. Another 22 members were asked to act as Aftercare Officers and Panel Speakers.

Another benchmark of SPC's dedication towards community development would be SPC's involvement in other associations. In January 1980, SPC became a corporate member of the People's Association, and the then Centre Chairman was invited to sit on the Board of the People's Association. SPC representatives also served in the then Singapore Council of Social Service and the then Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research. In addition, two office bearers of SPC contributed in launching the Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE) into existence.

SPC, right from its early years, has been conscious of the paramount importance of providing career guidance to the young school leavers. It has recognised that Singapore's growth depended on her youth's contributing effectively towards the economy and envisaging that career guidance was the key. This led to SPC's involvement in career education. The first career exhibition was held in January 1972 at the Victoria Memorial Hall. In 1973, it was held at the SPC's Outram Park premises and subsequently at all community centres through an arrangement with the People's Association.

In 1975, at the 1st SPC Convention "Towards a Better Singapore" the idea of SPC promoting manpower training for Singapore was raised. Within a year, the first career exhibition and seminar was held. This paved the way for the "CAREER" series held annually since 1988. Over the years, the CAREER Exhibition-cum-seminar, from its first simple set-up at the Outram Park Block, is now the largest regional career exhibition. CAREER 2000 incorporating Recruitment 2000 recorded over 334,000 visitors and 305 Exhibitors from 14 countries. 122 seminars were organised. Today the CAREER series caters not only to the young school leavers, but also to the public commencing a second or third career.

In 1993, the SPC initiated the SPC Student Ambassador Award with the main objective of nurturing the global spirit among young Singaporeans and to increase students' awareness of the importance of career planning. The contests from 1994-97 were based on the students' knowledge and competence in languages. In 1998, it was based on scholastic, extra-curricular contributions, interpersonal skills and leadership qualities. In 1999 and 2000, the contests were a 5-minute IT Multimedia presentation. Prizes were presented by the Guest of Honour at the opening ceremony of the CAREER Exhibition-cum-Seminar and the Top Award Winners each year, was awarded a weeklong overseas attachment during the March or June school holidays.

As our economy depends primarily on our labour force, our work force must therefore increase productivity and develop more creative, flexible and adaptable skills to meet challenges. Most people are generally not aware of the need for continuing education or place little emphasis on it. Recognising the dire need to promote a training tradition amongst our workforce, SPC together with its member associations and other professional bodies and training institutions formed a committee in 1985 to hold discussions with ministers on continuing education. In 1987, the Voluntary Certificate of Continuing Education and Development was established. Under this scheme, an individual is awarded a Certificate in Continuing Education and Development based on his/her attainment of 10 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) within a 24 month period. The CEU is recommended by the committee to give a quantitative measure to the learning activities. Each CEU is defined as "four contact hours of learning in an organised continuing education experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction and qualified instruction."

The foresight and vision of SPC's convenor Dr Lee Kum Tatt and the dedication and commitment of the past Chairpersons, Office Bearers and Board Members who laid the foundation for the organization to be not only as "a model for other professional centres in the Commonwealth" - (Dr Humayun Khan, Director, Commonwealth Foundation, October 1994), but to have attained the success as well as the continued support and recognition received from both government bodies and private sector for its programmes confirm SPC's achievement of its founding philosophy.

In the SPC- First Twelve Years Publication, the founder Chairman observed: "The practice of uni-professional discipline can be enhanced by better understanding what other professionals are doing. For example, a medical practitioner should know what his colleagues in the field of dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy and so on are doing. If you mix with people of your own profession, you somehow lack that breadth of thinking which modern professionals should have.

In a modern society with a lot of technology and social issues, many of the things that face us today are multi-disciplinary in nature. For example, housing requires the inter play of the disciplines of architecture, engineering, town planning, sociology, medicine and others."

In the old economy a professional is often perceived as a technocrat practising his discipline in a fairly restrictive environmental setting. His body of knowledge is largely confined to his discipline and his social life is also restricted to just members of his friends and family. In the new economy, however, this professional has to acquire more appropriate skills to stay employable, to be competitive, to assimilate knowledge outside his discipline, and to match with the rest of the global professionals. For example, a professional in the new economy has to be flexible and be competent in multi-tasking and multi-skill processes.

Moreover, as Singapore moves into the knowledge-based economy (KBE), each professional may have to live up to the demand for:
a) a high standard of professionalism,
b) a broad-base of knowledge to handle wider job scope,
c) know-how of dealing with knowledge workers,
d) acceptance of continuous learning and
e) a wider network of establishing contacts in a borderless world "

In 2001-2002, SPC will be organising activities toward the Total Professional Development (TPD) of its members, (Refer to Chart on Total Professional Development)) which will include Networking, Continuous Learning, Wellness, Professional Image through Professional Grooming and Etiquette, Safety Net in economic downturn, as provided for by the Singapore Professionals and Executive Cooperative (SPEC), Community services etc….

Emphasis will be made on:
>Working towards Accreditation: Member Associations who are not statutory regulated should consider working toward accreditation to enhance the quality of professionalism in their fields and ensure a degree of protection for the professionals against foreign unqualified foreign and local professionals
>Continuing Education: Re-Launch of the Continuing Education and Development scheme started in 1987 and to offer executive development programmes and short educational programmes to assist in the transition to the New Economy.
>Bi-lateral and Multi-lateral activities: To emphasise networking within the 21 member associations and to promote the exchange of interdisciplinary expertise and skills and to promote membership bonding
>The SPC Journal to go electronic and a re-vamp of the SPC website, to encourage member associations to advertise their activities and event through the SPC website
>Community Services Projects. SPC with a membership of 7,000 in the various interdisciplinary professions is in the best position to educate the community and bring home to them the message of gearing up for lifelong employability by updating one's knowledge and skills as the professional has little choice, if he wants to remain at the top, in face of intense competition and to stay relevant in the New Economy.

SPC in co-locating with Toa Payoh Central Community Club, will make itself more easily accessible to the public at large and assist the Toa Payoh CCC expand its programmes to attract the professionals/executives in the Toa Payoh area to the CC.

In co-locating with the Toa Payoh Central CC, SPC will:
>offer relevant talks/seminars/workshops organised, to the residents of Toa Payoh at SPC members' privileges/ registration fees.
>assist in changing the present image of CCs' through interaction with the constituents of Toa Payoh.
>encourage the professionals and executives to participate in community services
>encourage the professionals and executives to participate in the activities of the CC by organising relevant seminars, workshops etc, so that the Community Club can remain the focal point of community life