When Singapore embarked on rapid industrialisation in the 1960s to build up its economy, education policies were accordingly designed to equip students with the technical and vocational skills that would be needed for industrial work. Therefore, the Ministry of Education introduced technical training as a compulsory subject in 1969 at the lower secondary levelfor all male students and half of the female cohort (the other half studied Home Economics). This workbench dates to the 1980s or earlier, and was used by students of CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School for their technical workshop-based subjects, e.g. woodwork and metalwork. These subjects merged to become "Design and Technology" in 1986, a subject still offered in secondary schools today.
