What are some of the many important items in an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) inspector’s kit? A cup of kopi and a curry puff.
Just ask Inspector (Insp) Tan Jing Xuan, 24, a Group Leader currently deployed at Woodlands Checkpoint. Buying coffee and snacks for her team members may not cost much, but it speaks volumes of her concern for their well-being.
Woodlands Checkpoint is one of the busiest border crossings in the world, seeing about 300,000 travellers passing through a day. This number is higher during long weekends and holiday periods.
To facilitate the movement of people and vehicles through the checkpoint, Insp Tan’s team of 20 officers, who are part of a bigger group of over 300, work in rotation around the clock, pulling 12-hour shifts.
As such, she has to ensure that her team is well-rested and ready to deal with any potential incidents that may happen at the checkpoint.
“My bosses always make it a point to reach out and check in on me to find out whether I am adapting well to the shift pattern and the dynamic nature of our work. They genuinely care for the well-being of our officers and would often buy us snacks, such as drinks and waffles,” shares Insp Tan.
“Having received so much support and guidance from my bosses, I am inspired to pay it forward and do the same for my team.”
During peak periods, Insp Tan would make sure every one of her team members are given enough time for breaks, and has a chance to grab a drink or quick snack to recharge at a dedicated welfare area she set up for them.
By prioritising her team’s well-being, she ensures that they are ready to perform their roles and responsibilities as guardians of our borders.
The duty officers on her team are tasked with performing more thorough checks and searches on individuals flagged by the Assessment and Investigation Officers during the first layer of checks.
Her role as a Group Leader also involves streamlining the processes at Woodlands Checkpoint.
Just a few months into her posting at the checkpoint, she has already made strides in improving the efficiency of the checkpoint’s operations. The scholar has been working on several key projects to digitise current processes.
Her internship and work experience at ICA has honed her skills in problem-solving.
“It is important to segment the problem, and divide and conquer,” she explains. “This makes your solution more targeted towards a specific audience.”
Rather than trying to find a one-size-fits-all solution, it is critical to understand the problem at hand from different perspectives.
With this in mind, she takes the time to interact and engage with her team members, giving them a safe space to share their opinions on existing processes – a practice that she has picked up from her internship at the ICA Training Command in 2019.
Her senior colleagues and supervisors were more than willing to share their expertise and experience with her.
“Having received so much support and guidance from my bosses, I am inspired to pay it forward and do the same for my team.”
– Inspector Tan Jing Xuan, recipient of the MHA Uniformed Scholarship (ICA)
“They would always check to see whether I was adapting well and if I needed any guidance, and care for me in ways that showed they saw me as more than just a colleague,” says Insp Tan. “It really felt like they wanted to get to know me as a person.”
During the internship, she was entrusted with a project that investigated the connection between trainees who faced disciplinary action and how many of them ended up leaving the ICA.
Through chatting with fellow interns from other Home Team departments, Insp Tan realised that she was lucky and felt heartened to have been entrusted with such a meaningful project even though she was just an intern.
This reinforced her determination to pursue a career at ICA. She took up the Ministry of Home Affairs Uniformed Scholarship (ICA) in 2019 and graduated from the National University of Singapore with a double major in economics and psychology in May 2023. She started working at ICA in August that year.
| Finding the right fit For students torn between more than one scholarship, Inspector (Insp) Tan Jing Xuan recommends applying for an internship to better gauge whether the organisation is the right fit. Here is what to take note of: Making sure goals are aligned: Ask yourself if your personal goals are in line with the organisation’s mission. For Insp Tan, she feels strongly about the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) mission of being Singapore’s first line of defence in border security and connecting Singapore to the rest of the world. Knowing the nature of work: Different roles come with different demands. For example, what is required of a nine-to-five job varies from an operational job role with shift work. The dynamic nature of the work at ICA was a pull factor for Insp Tan. Having a good work environment: The internship will serve as a good preview of the organisation’s culture and whether it suits you. “I look forward to work at ICA because the workplace feels like family to me,” adds Insp Tan. |
Her first attachment was to the ICA Passport Unit at the ICA Building. There, the fresh-faced officer was immediately tasked with reducing the number of walk-in cases for the application and collection of new passports.
For the project, she had to speak to members of the public to find out their reasons for going down to the ICA Passport Unit and propose solutions to reduce the number of walk-in cases, of which the elderly made up a large percentage.
Among other findings, Insp Tan discovered that the number of walk-in cases is correlated to the quality of ICA’s e-services. Her project eventually translated into improvements to ICA’s e-services to ensure that they are user-friendly and effective.
She recalled an incident where she found out that a member of the public was suffering abuse. Insp Tan went out of her way to bring her to a family service centre.
“As immigration officers, we have to be alert and find out the underlying problem and challenges faced by the person in front of us. This incident made me feel more passionate about my work,” she says.
Following her stint at the ICA Passport Unit, Insp Tan underwent a 26-week ICA Basic Course (Inspector) training at the Home Team Academy before joining the Woodlands Command in May this year.
Mr Phua Chiew Hua, 2 deputy director of ICA’s operations division, shares: “When I first met her, she was pretty quiet and timid. But last year, when I had the opportunity to facilitate a training session for her team, I realised that she became a much more confident person as compared to four to five years ago.” Mr Phua was Insp Tan’s mentor during her first attachment in ICA.
Her time at ICA has taught her many things, but most of all, it has made her highly cognisant of the fact that safety in Singapore cannot be taken for granted.
“It is only through the efforts of all the Home Team departments that Singapore is as safe as it is,” she says. “Even when I am asleep, they are working to keep the nation safe. It is very meaningful that I am able to contribute towards this shared mission.”
| About the MHA Uniformed Scholarship Depending on your interests and aspirations, this scholarship will allow you to kick-start your leadership journey as a uniformed officer in one of five Home Team departments: Singapore Police Force (SPF), Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Singapore Prison Service (SPS) and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), or as a paramedic with SCDF. |
| More on this topic “I treated my scholarship like a career application” From law graduate to law enforcer: How she pursues passion to serve the nation |
This article is brought to you by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.