Bridging the skills gap

Tech professional Alfred Tam pursues the MTech ITL at NUS-ISS to boost his business skills

Jan 10, 2019

An information technology (IT) professional with about 20 years of experience, Mr Alfred Tam, in his 40s, realises there are occasional gaps in his skills when he engages with business leaders.

To address these gaps, he enrolled in the part-time Master of Technology in IT Leadership (MTech ITL) programme at the Institute of Systems Science at National University of Singapore (NUS-ISS), which he started in July 2018.

He is looking forward to the upcoming modules in his course — such as Business and IT Financial Management, and Measuring and Demonstrating Value from IT Investments — as these will equip him to communicate with business leaders and corporate sponsors with more confidence.

In his current job, Mr Tam leads digital innovation and programmes in a group enterprise business unit, where he contributes to developing group enterprise digital strategy, process design and implementation.

He tells us more about his course:

What drew you to pursue the MTech ITL?

It has a blend of advanced business and IT modules, which will help me sharpen my skill sets in digital leadership, innovation leadership, transformation strategy and business partnership.

The programme’s teachings on digital leadership can equip me with the right business and technology leadership knowledge to be an effective business partner and revenue contributor.

What have you enjoyed most in the course and why?

The Fundamentals of IT Leadership Transformation module inspired me to be a team motivator and practise results-oriented leadership.

The Strategic Alignment of Business & IT module helped me to develop digital strategies that align with my company’s vision and mission.

Another module I enjoyed is IT Innovation Leadership, which ignited my passion for innovation as well as design-thinking approach in product development.