Allow NSmen to Indicate Vocation of Choice for Reservist Training

2 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Defence whether the scheme of allowing pre-enlistees entering National Service to indicate their preferred vocation of choice can be extended to NSmen who wish to utilise their newly obtained skill sets for their reservist training.

Dr Ng Eng Hen: We seek to match full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) with their indicated vocations of choice, given their longer lengths of service. This is done while ensuring the SAF's operational requirements continue to be met.

For NSmen who perform their duties for only a few weeks a year, it would not be practical or efficient to take into account their preferences in such a manner. Instead, for those with the relevant technical skills in domains, such as cybersecurity and info-communications, we have a scheme to administratively redeploy them to more suitable operational roles. This is currently performed by the SAF's Expertise Deployment Centre which was set up in 2021. Over the past eight years, around 400 NSmen with relevant expertise have been redeployed to new roles. To achieve better matching for redeployment, the SAF will also be encouraging NSmen to update their post-NS education, training and job experience through the NS Portal and other touchpoints.