Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That's a long career. What advice would you have for someone who is interested in the leadership track? I'm about to be in service for one year but I'm fortunate to have been given quite a few projects and tasks to handle in my school.

Hi a quick reply from me amidst my lunch.

Actually leadership track is quite full now. During MLS, they are encouraging HODs/SHs to switch to ST-ship.

You need to demonstrate initiative, quick/creative thinking when given tasks (basically, demonstrate that you are deserving of a higher CEP.) In addition, the projects need to have impact, especially affecting a level or the whole school. At the end, it also boils down to how your HOD appraise you. (For me, I will appraise a JH more positively if he/she comes to me with proposals to solve problems than coming to me to solve problems for him/her and yes, I have gotten wonderful 1A1 officers to run programmes impacting the whole school and external community before.)

You also need to remember that teaching and learning is still bread and butter and also keep in mind never to forget the duty of care teachers have.

Hope this helps.

Hi LostHOD,

1. Do all scholars generally promote faster (including local ones and those lower tier overseas scholars such as Teaching Scholarship (Overseas))? How does MOE select who to go for MOE HQ stints after 2-3 years of teaching? How about teaching awardees?

2. A lot of hype is on the Leadership Track, but do you know anything about the Specialist Track? Is it advisable to go onto that track?

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi LostHOD,

1. Do all scholars generally promote faster (including local ones and those lower tier overseas scholars such as Teaching Scholarship (Overseas))? How does MOE select who to go for MOE HQ stints after 2-3 years of teaching? How about teaching awardees?

2. A lot of hype is on the Leadership Track, but do you know anything about the Specialist Track? Is it advisable to go onto that track?

Thank you.

lol. i couldnt help but laugh at this even though im not a MOE teacher.

it's a FACT that scholars PROMOTE FASTER in the entire civil service. dont even need brains to think about this. if not, den wat's the value n prospect of taking scholarships? LOLOLOL

aiya leadership and specialist track. glorified names nia. i hope ur a male who been thru NS and not a female, bcos im gonna use the analogy of SAF.

leadership = commissioned officer
specialist = non-commissioned officer aka sergeant to warrant / encik

now who do u think will command who to do saikang (Sh1t work) in the event your dept has only 1 person on LT and another person on ST.

1. Do all scholars generally promote faster (including local ones and those lower tier overseas scholars such as Teaching Scholarship (Overseas))? How does MOE select who to go for MOE HQ stints after 2-3 years of teaching? How about teaching awardees?

Definitely scholars get promoted faster. Scholars on AO scheme get promoted faster than EO scholars. (AO scheme - dual track scholars). As for teaching awardees, I am not very sure but I think their progression is the same as normal teachers. However, it would be based on my observations only as some of my uni mates who were teaching awardees do not hold any leadership position now)

If you wish to apply for stints in MOE, you can apply via open posting but some MOE postings are never advertised. I am currently in a stint where vacancies are never openly advertised in Apex. Recommendation needs to go through P and Supt and then you are invited for 'tea' session (aka interview). But you need to note that life is HQ is not for everyone. It is basically a desk bound job and requires a certain level of writing skills. Deadlines are generally manageable though sometimes the schedule can be crazy (like this week is burnt for me as I need to write papers). But the learning is very good.

2. A lot of hype is on the Leadership Track, but do you know anything about the Specialist Track? Is it advisable to go onto that track?

Sorry. Don't know much about specialist track as my P put me in leadership track and basically refuse to put me on specialist track. Every track has its own merits. For specialist track, you get to deepen their pedagogy of the subject you are passionate about.


Hope I answered your queries adequately.

Not supposed to be communicated. Of course in practice your RO might be willing to reveal; but I feel that doesn't necessarily benefit either party.

The closest I've come across to revealing of CEP is when talking with RO / reportees about career aspiration; since there are minimum requirements of CEP for SH/LH/HOD positions, the RO might possibly let you know straightaway if you don't qualify.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Will we ever get to know our CEP? Has any of your ROs actually told you about your CEP?

If you have 2 teachers, both entering service at the same time. One teacher is being promoted to a KP position but the other teacher (without KP portfolio) is being promoted to another substantive grade faster than the teacher who has been given KP portfolio, who has a higher CEP?

This is where I would suggest outsiders not betray their ignorance by commenting too much on stuff they don't know...

The specialist track refers to a path for officers who choose to stay on in HQ doing specialist work for the long haul. Nothing to do with ST/LT (who are on the teaching track).

This is almost a permanent move - you are essentially abandoning the leadership/teaching tracks when you decide to transfer. The typical path for this is to get a HQ posting as an officer (usually a SEO1 - SH/LH - level role), indicate an interest to your bosses about staying on, and then clearing interviews etc. to be appointed as a specialist.

For specialists, the 'level' is dictated by levels. Level 1 caps at SEO2, Level 2 caps at SEO3, Level 3 onwards would qualify for superscale. Realistically, most specialists peak at Level 2. From what I've noticed, Level 3 and 4 specialists would be project directors and kind of equivalent to deputy directors / VPs, or even higher.

Progression/promotion on the specialist track would be slower than on the leadership track. You can expect to stay at SEO1 as a level 1 specialist for many years. Ultimately, it is really for people who feel they are better suited for that nature of work as opposed to going back to schools in leadership/teaching roles.

I've described mainly the practical aspects of the track - for exact jobscope, it's difficult to go into detail as there are different specialist roles in various divisions. My advice would be to check out which divisions/branches have specialists (I suggest googling "sgdi moe specialist") and finding out more about the work that they do, then attempting to secure a HQ stint there as a HQ officer.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

lol. i couldnt help but laugh at this even though im not a MOE teacher.

...

aiya leadership and specialist track. glorified names nia. i hope ur a male who been thru NS and not a female, bcos im gonna use the analogy of SAF.

leadership = commissioned officer
specialist = non-commissioned officer aka sergeant to warrant / encik

now who do u think will command who to do saikang (Sh1t work) in the event your dept has only 1 person on LT and another person on ST.

My 2¢ - that's a pretty good start. Continue to do your best in the bread and butter (classroom teaching). If you are already contributing significantly within your school, you may also want to indicate to your RO your interest in the leadership track and ask for advice. If you are a good worker it is in your RO's interest to give you more developmental assignments that will also help the department's output.

That said, there may not be vacancies in your school for upward progression. It is possible to apply to other schools to take on a SH/LH role once you've been in service for three years; to convince the other school to take you, you'd need a good portfolio though. CEP would also have to be there. Changing schools is also a rather big step, so you'll need to assess whether that's what you want at the point in time.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What advice would you have for someone who is interested in the leadership track? I'm about to be in service for one year but I'm fortunate to have been given quite a few projects and tasks to handle in my school.

From what I'd observed in ranking panels, promising officers whose CEP is pushed up will be assigned the Leadership Track by default. It seems to be the most versatile path - can easily transfer laterally to the Specialist/Teaching tracks later, whereas the reverse doesn't seem to be so simple.

Originally Posted by LostHOD

2. A lot of hype is on the Leadership Track, but do you know anything about the Specialist Track? Is it advisable to go onto that track?

Sorry. Don't know much about specialist track as my P put me in leadership track and basically refuse to put me on specialist track. Every track has its own merits. For specialist track, you get to deepen their pedagogy of the subject you are passionate about.


Hope I answered your queries adequately.

Can anyone apply for a stint at HQ? Does one need to have certain CEP to be able to get a stint at HQ? Or anyone can try to apply through open posting?

Originally Posted by HQ Worker

This is where I would suggest outsiders not betray their ignorance by commenting too much on stuff they don't know...

The specialist track refers to a path for officers who choose to stay on in HQ doing specialist work for the long haul. Nothing to do with ST/LT (who are on the teaching track).

This is almost a permanent move - you are essentially abandoning the leadership/teaching tracks when you decide to transfer. The typical path for this is to get a HQ posting as an officer (usually a SEO1 - SH/LH - level role), indicate an interest to your bosses about staying on, and then clearing interviews etc. to be appointed as a specialist.

For specialists, the 'level' is dictated by levels. Level 1 caps at SEO2, Level 2 caps at SEO3, Level 3 onwards would qualify for superscale. Realistically, most specialists peak at Level 2. From what I've noticed, Level 3 and 4 specialists would be project directors and kind of equivalent to deputy directors / VPs, or even higher.

Progression/promotion on the specialist track would be slower than on the leadership track. You can expect to stay at SEO1 as a level 1 specialist for many years. Ultimately, it is really for people who feel they are better suited for that nature of work as opposed to going back to schools in leadership/teaching roles.

I've described mainly the practical aspects of the track - for exact jobscope, it's difficult to go into detail as there are different specialist roles in various divisions. My advice would be to check out which divisions/branches have specialists (I suggest googling "sgdi moe specialist") and finding out more about the work that they do, then attempting to secure a HQ stint there as a HQ officer.

Good summary. Personally having been in the system my recommendation for others who are not very sure is not to take up the specialist track unless you are really absolutely certain this is what you want. Some people I know are just sick of the frontline teaching and thought that opting a specialist track will allow you to hide in HQ and not deal with pesky students, parents and principals.

Specialist track straight away limits your prospects and flexibility severely. Unless you are like top 5% consistent strong performer all the way or have a powerful mentor, your career will just trudge along with almost no prospects for promotion. The work can also be very boring and repetitive especially for some subject matters that are very narrow and niche, i.e. you really need to have real passion in it, not just treat it like general teaching where you can still grind along.

Also spec roles are very corporate and report driven. You will be writing a lot of papers, doing all sorts of studies and review for presentation to policy makers / decision makers. Some people have impression specialist is less political because you just 'do your own thing'. Nothing is further from the truth, you are dealing with so many senior and influential top dogs as a small fry and you need to learn a lot of office politic techniques to protect yourself and advance your proposals and balance against various cliques that are hostile to each other.

Hi, to all who have been in the service long enough, is it true that it is unrealistic of young teachers who are not scholars to apply for HQ positions? What are the requirements for HQ positions? Do they groom young officers?