Mr Lee: The next generation of infocomm professionals must also be well-equipped with domain knowledge of different businesses.

"Globally, there is increasing demand for infocomm talent - people who possess both the technical skills and the business knowledge," said Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) Gala Dinner and IT Leader Awards 2008 ceremony. "The next generation of infocomm professionals has to possess more than just sound infocomm skills. They must also be well-equipped with domain knowledge of different businesses to be able to offer solutions and services primed to the needs of each
specific business environment."

In line with this, the Techno-Strategist Programme will target infocomm professionals, equipping them with sector-specific domain knowledge and solutioning capabilities. The government intends to work with industry players who already possess expertise in specific areas, such as integrated digital media, to develop and deliver specialised courses.

In the next two years, the programme will focus on grooming some 1,000 "techno-strategists" in the healthcare, finance and banking sectors.
Going forward, IDA will expand the Techno-Strategist Programme to meet
the infocomm manpower needs of other economic sectors such as retail
and hospitality.

Besides the infocomm professionals, the manpower development programmes will also target students. University undergraduates can look forward to the Enhanced Learning in Infocomm Technology Programme or "ELITe", in the academic year 2008.

This programme will target the top 20 per cent of infocomm students at the three local universities. It is aimed at enhancing the students’ infocomm capabilities through the acquisition of practical infocomm skills and business domain knowledge. This will be achieved by involving companies who will offer industry attachment and project work opportunities to the students.

• The full text of Dr Lee Boon Yang’s speech is available here.

Singapore's infocomm employment growth rate hit a new high of 8.9 per cent in 2007, with the number of employed infocomm manpower reaching 130,400. These were the findings of the Annual Infocomm Manpower Survey 2007 carried out by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). In comparison, infocomm manpower growth rates stood at 7.5 per cent in 2006 and 3.1 per cent in 2005.

Infocomm manpower constitutes about 4.8 per cent of the total employed labour force in Singapore. Over half – 56 per cent –worked in infocomm organisations and the rest in end-user organisations.

The three job categories with the highest number of employed infocomm manpower were Infrastructure Support (23,300), Infocomm Sales and Marketing (20,700) and Software Development (18,100). Not surprisingly, these categories also generated the most job vacancies in 2007, with 940 vacancies in Software Development, 740 in Infocomm Sales and Marketing, and 420 in Infrastructure Support. Taking into account the vacancies and employment rates, the survey found that there was a net growth of 11 per cent in infocomm jobs in 2007.

Source: IDA’s Annual Infocomm Manpower Survey 2007

• Key findings of the Annual Infocomm Manpower Survey 2007 are
  available here.

Travis Ho was eight years old when he wrote his first text-based adventure game on his home computer. His parents, understandably anxious about his schoolwork, had refused to buy him any video games. This early precociousness and interest in video games has led Mr Ho, now 24 years old, to develop real-time strategy games. "Technology is there to capture everything you can think about," he said. "The only limitation is your
own imagination."

2008 IT Youth Award winners Mr Travis Ho (left) and Mr Lua Rui Ping.

The combination of technology and imagination has led Mr Ho to a scholarship from the International Game Developers Association and internships at prestigious institutions. This year, his parents have even more reason to be proud - the young man was one of two recipients of the IT Youth Award at the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) IT Leader Awards 2008.

Now into its 12th year, the SCS IT Leader Awards aims to acknowledge vital contributions of individuals to the IT industry; illustrate the depth of talent in the field; and to encourage youths to pursue IT as a career.

The other winner of the 2008 IT Youth Award was Mr Lua Rui Ping, a 23-year-old student at Nanyang Technological University. Mr Lua was singled out for his leadership qualities within the student community, organising technology programmes, road shows, student workshops, and most recently helping to develop the Collaborative Developers Ecosystem Experiment – a virtual environment that allows students to work on their own ideas
and products.

This year's IT Leader Awards were presented at the SCS Gala Dinner on 29 February 2008.

Giving his views on the state of IT manpower development in Singapore today, industry veteran Mr Wee Tew Lim, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his pioneering work in the electronic retail payments industry, said, "Singapore has done alright so far; we've managed to identify areas to focus on and train people for. But this is an ongoing process and hopefully we will continue to have people who can see ahead as to where the technology trends are moving, and (to then) design education programmes to make sure our people are always a little ahead."

The National Infocomm Competition (NIC) 2008 will challenge participants in the use of next-generation infocomm technologies, and the winners will get the opportunity to prove their mettle on the international stage.

"We are raising the bar in this year's NIC to challenge our students to use next-generation infocomm technologies to solve industry-related competitions," said Mr Leong Keng Thai, Deputy Chief Executive and Director-General (Telecoms), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). "I am confident these students will do well, to become Singapore's pipeline of infocomm talent, who needs to stay relevant in the fast-changing
infocomm scene."

The NIC is organised by the IDA together with the Institutes of Higher Learning, Ministry of Education and the industry, with the aim of inculcating interest in infocomm as a career.

Into its third year, NIC 2008 has been expanded to offer more next-generation infocomm technologies in the challenges, including interactive digital media, programming and Web 2.0 applications. Winners of NIC 2008 will have the opportunity to represent Singapore in other regional and international infocomm competitions. For instance, the winners of one of the NIC challenges, the Splash Awards 2008, will enter automatically into the semi-finals of the Imagine Cup 2008, a competition that encourages the development of innovative technology solutions to real world issues. Winners of another challenge, the 11th National Olympiad In Informatics, will represent Singapore in the International Olympiad in Informatics.

As with previous NICs, the students will compete in three circuits: Secondary School, Junior College and Polytechnic/ITE. There will be 12 challenges held over the course of the year. Making its debut is X-site, an educational website design competition, and the Schools Digital Media Awards which aims to get students to express their creativity through video, audio and animation. Points will be awarded to the top winners in each challenge and the school with the highest accumulated points will be the circuit champion.

Circuit champions for the 2007 competition, which attracted a record 2,500 participants, were Raffles Institution (Secondary School), Hwa Chong Institution (Junior College) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic School of Infocomm Technology (Polytechnic/ITE). The students will get to go on a knowledge acquisition trip to Silicon Valley in the United States, where they will meet with, and learn from leading infocomm and digital media companies such as Sun Microsystems, Adobe, Cisco Systems, Google, Pixar and Dreamworks.

The Temasek Polytechnic team emerged second runner up in the Polytechnic/IT Circuit.

For many of the top schools in last year's competition, a combination of programming panache and presentation skills were key to victory. Mr Darren Ang, 21, a member of the Temasek Polytechnic team which emerged second runner up in the Polytechnic/IT Circuit, said preparation for the competition involved intensive training as team members honed their presentation skills. "We actually simulated the competition and went through it many times,"
he said.

For teammates Ms Serene Tan and Ms Goh Chew Yan, the team's performance in the competition has also boosted their confidence in their infocomm skills. The two had originally planned to go into a tourism-related course but found themselves in the polytechnic's Informatics and IT School instead. "In the beginning, we weren't sure if we would do well in this area. But after going through this competition, we know we can do it," said Ms Tan.

• For details of the National Infocomm Competition, visit the Singapore Infocomm Talent Portal.