"I want to make a positive difference in the things I do and keep Singapore strong for our future generations."
Introduction
As a Girl Guide during her growing-up years, the words of founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell – to ‘leave the world a little better than you found it’ – have long inspired Gan Siow Huang’s sense of community service and spirit of adventure.
Since being elected to represent Marymount SMC in 2020, building a more caring and sustainable community has been Siow Huang’s key focus. She seeded the Marymount Care and Green Plans under which various ground-up projects have sprouted, such as food rescue, support for caregivers, free acupuncture and TCM massage therapy for seniors, and tree planting to celebrate new births.
Siow Huang’s work in the Ministries of Education and Manpower is centred on improving jobs and employability of Singaporeans. Through the SkillsFuture movement, skills upgrading and lifelong learning programmes have been enhanced to benefit more mid-career Singaporeans. On the manpower side, companies are encouraged to do more to adopt progressive workplace practices - fostering greater diversity, flexible work arrangements, work life harmony and mental wellbeing support for workers.
She also advocates for the empowerment of women. She mentors young women starting on their first careers, and supports back-to-work women as she feels that women can contribute much more with sufficient support at home and at work. Siow Huang is constantly powered by her passion for her family and work, and hopes to see more women stepping forward to take on leadership roles in the workplace.
