The Sentinel Programme

The Sentinel Programme is a talent development programme to equip youths with cybersecurity and digital skills.

Secondary school (or equivalent) students would go through a progressive training curriculum throughout their secondary school years to explore cybersecurity and digital applications, starting from the middle of the Secondary 1 academic year.

Junior College, Polytechnic and ITE (or equivalent) students would go through a comprehensive training curriculum to deepen their cybersecurity and digital skills, with starting dates depending on the respective Junior College, Polytechnic and ITE academic calendars.

The word, “Sentinel” refers to a person who keeps watch. The programme name reflects its vision to nurture a community of youths who possess the skills, values, and traits to safeguard Singapore’s digital way of life.

No, participants do not need to pay for the programme. The programme is fully sponsored by MINDEF/SAF.

In general, for lower secondary school students, there will be workshops during the mid-year and end-of-year school holidays. When students progresses to upper secondary and post-secondary levels, they will also attend Saturday classes during term time in addition to workshops during the school holidays.Further details on the programme schedule will be shared with successful applicants.

Sentinel is a 4-year programme for students who join in Secondary 1 (or equivalent), and a 2-year programme for students who join in Year 1 Junior College, Polytechnic and ITE (or equivalent).

Secondary school students who complete the 4-year programme can continue with the programme when they are in post-secondary education institutions, subject to meeting the qualifying criteria.

Students are requested to apply using their school-assigned student email address e.g. email addresses ending with @students.edu.sg.

All students from MOE schools are issued a student email account ending with @students.edu.sg, which is administered by the school. Please approach your school administrator if you need any assistance with the email account.

Students who face issues with their @students.edu.sg email account or do not have such an email account are advised to email us at sentinel@defence.gov.sg.

Students from MOE schools are requested to apply using their student email account ending with @students.edu.sg.

All students from MOE schools are issued a student email account ending with @students.edu.sg, which is administered by the school. Please approach your school administrator for assistance if you face any issues. Once you have received/verified your school email, you can proceed to apply for the programme through go.gov.sg/sentinel.

Students who face issues with their school email account or do not have such an email account are advised to email us at sentinel@defence.gov.sg.

Please email us your school email address at sentinel@defence.gov.sg and we will whitelist it for application.

The verification code will be sent to the email account you used in the application form. Please access your email account to retrieve the code.

Please approach your school administrator for assistance if you face any issues accessing your school email account.

Please approach your school administrator for assistance if you face any issues with your school email account.

After submitting the online application, applicants will receive instructions via email to sit for an online, aptitude-based selection test. Successful applicants will be notified by email.

Applicants will be informed via their registered email address on when they should expect to receive the results of their application.

All Year 1 students of Secondary Schools, Junior Colleges, Polytechnics and ITEs (or equivalent) in 2025 who are Singaporeans or Singapore Permanent Residents are eligible to apply.

The Sentinel Programme currently enrols only first year students in Secondary Schools, Junior Colleges, Polytechnics and ITEs ( or equivalent). We will update the website and schools if enrolment is opened up to other education levels in future.

Knowledge of programming is not required but will be useful. No preparation is required for the selection test.