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As a Singaporean, I've always wanted to contribute to the nation and the social good. It is great when your professional capability is aligned with what you want to do for the country.

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This project, very simply was about driving professionalism in the special education sector in Singapore. We essentially found ourselves solving three things. One, how do you provide clarity to special needs educators on where their career could progress and develop? Two, how do you attract, retain, enhance your best talent in Singapore? And three, what skills, capabilities do special needs educators need to double down on to stay relevant?

When we were looking at how to professionalize the special education sector in Singapore, we took a look at some leading practices, taking particular focus on countries such as Australia, America, United Kingdom. And we also made sure to Zoom in on Japan and Hong Kong. We conducted quite a lot of desktop research, so really understanding how do you pay teachers differently when they are teaching special education.

Students with special needs require a holistic environment to thrive in. And through this project, the public will know that even students with special needs deserve teachers of the highest quality. And hopefully, through this project, tangible outcomes and benefits will be impacted on not just the teachers alone, but also the students, their families, and their wider community in Singapore.

And as a result of which we saw that the career progression of the teachers will be enhanced. We believe that that will help them to stay longer in the sector. The longer they stay, the more experience they have, as well as through the professional development, they will acquire the skill sets that they need. And that will, in turn, serve the students better in the sector.

My mom's been a teacher for the last 30 years. And I think for the first time in 30 plus years, we spoke about what we did, and we both had an appreciation about how we were trying to make a difference. So I think that's how it impacted me personally, quite close to home.

My mother runs a kindergarten since before I was born up until now. My father also spends a lot of time doing lectures in universities. So the project allows me to give back. It's also nice being able to talk to them about some of the issues that I've seen, things that can be improved as well.

This is one of the most fruitful experience, being able to contribute to such a meaningful project like this. It acts as a really timely reminder that all of us in the society have a duty to play to contribute back, even though it might be through a professional service like ours, or voluntary efforts.

What this project has done has fit together the different pieces of the Mercer jigsaw puzzle, to really show how an HR can be used as a building block to change people's experience of work and the types of careers that we can offer them.

We can help to create purposeful, productive, and meaningful careers and for all different types of sectors.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome to Brighter.

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