Committee of Supply 2023 debate, Day 2: Zaqy Mohamad on digital and cybersecurity skills for youths in Total Defence

A pilot programme to arm young people with digital and cybersecurity skills will be expanded and offered to more students. The Sentinel Programme, which was launched last year by the Digital and Intelligence Service of the Singapore Armed Forces, offers students from secondary schools, junior colleges and polytechnics workshops, engagement sessions and competitions. Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad, who announced this in Parliament on Monday (Feb 27), stressed the need to actively engage students and empower youths to act in Singapore's digital defence. He said the programme was carefully crafted to expose students to foundational skills, such as basic programming, cryptography and network forensics. "We received strong student interest in the pilot programme," he said. The Government is working with other agencies, such as the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, to offer the programme to students from all secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics and institutes of technical education in the coming years, he said. Mr Zaqy stressed the importance of Total Defence as "our best preparation for, our best response to and our best recovery from the threats of today and tomorrow".