KLC International Institute (KLCII) as an institution that specialises in training adults to care for children, is honoured to be awarded the “Great Companies for Dads – Gold Award”, by the Centre For Fathering. This honour recognises our deep and sustained commitment to supporting fatherhood and fostering a family-friendly workplace culture where caregiving is not only accommodated, but celebrated.
GCFDA 2025 Gold Award
Below is the speech delivered by KLCII CEO and Principal, Dr Chua Ying Hwee, at the ceremony.
“Guest of Honour, Mr Ng Chee Khern, our hosts from CFF, distinguished guests, partners, fellow advocates, ladies and gentlemen.
Good afternoon, everyone. It is a great honour to be here with all of you today to celebrate fathering.
I will start by sharing a little about myself. From 1996 to 2016, I dedicated twenty years of my career to education — first as a teacher, then as a school principal, and later as a director at ITE and Polytechnic in the public sector. Throughout those years, I was deeply focused on caring for students who lacked supportive adults at home. In doing so, I held a misguided belief: that to care for other people’s children, I had to sacrifice caring for my own.
It was by chance that I encountered the ICAN course offered by CFF in 2016, and it opened my eyes to how much precious time I had missed with my own children. That marked a turning point for me. However, even after that realisation, I struggled to be truly Involved, Consistent, Aware, and Nurturing — the core ICAN pillars of good fathering — with my son and daughter.
Determined to improve, I attended the ICAN course two more times, bringing others along with me and asking my children to rate my efforts each time. I’m grateful to say their feedback showed an encouraging upward trend. It was only recently — after nearly a decade of perseverance — that my son said to me, “You are now really Dad for Life.”
KLCII at the Great Companies for Dads Awards 2025 Ceremony
“Of course, the journey is never a ‘happily ever after’. Fatherhood is a lifelong learning process, and I remain committed to growing every day.
The main business of KLC International Institute is to train and certify pre-school teachers in Singapore. Being in the childcare sector, we firmly believe that family and work should never have to compete. Our family-friendly initiatives are not simply HR policies — they reflect our vision to transform work and enhance lives. We are intentional about creating an environment where our staff feel empowered to prioritise urgent family needs without hesitation, guilt, or fear.
Having embedded the spirit of good fathering into our culture, we encourage not only our male employees, but also the husbands of our female staff, and even the families of our students, to participate in the ICAN workshops. Time and again, we observe that when husbands join the journey, they become stronger pillars of support for their wives and children both at home, at school and at work. This in turn strengthens the bonds within our organisation and fosters a community grounded in trust, care, and mutual respect.
At KLC, we take a holistic view of staff well-being, recognising that their families are an inseparable part of who they are. By removing the perceived conflict between professional and personal responsibilities, we cultivate a culture of belonging, engagement, unity, and resilience.
In 2023, as Mother’s Day approached, KLC — true to our spirit as an education organisation — started hosting our first complimentary ICAN workshop. We invited fathers among our employees and stakeholders to honour their wives by learning to be better fathers. We have hosted more ICAN workshops since then.
As educators, we know that one of the best ways to learn is to teach. Thus, we encourage our ICAN graduates to return as trainers, continuing their personal growth while facilitating the journey for others. To date, we have proudly supported the certification of 10 new ICAN trainers. Some have grown so passionate about the effectiveness of the course that they have taken this mission into their workplaces into foreign worker dormitories, and even beyond Singapore, reaching families in other nations.”
ICAN Train-the-Trainers Workshop at KLCII Ang Mo Kio Campus on 29 June 2024
“What began as an internal initiative has blossomed into a regional outreach effort, strengthening our ties with partners and elevating KLC’s reputation as a thought leader in parenting, education, and family engagement.
This afternoon, we are deeply honoured to stand with all of you — championing active fathering, a movement with the power to transform families, communities, and nations. Thank you.”
