A switching field effect transistor and the memory devices can be formed employing a same set of processing steps. An alternating stack of insulating layers and sacrificial material layers is formed over a substrate. Memory stack structures for memory devices and gate dielectric-channel structures for the field effect transistor can be simultaneously formed in a memory region and in a transistor region, respectively. After replacement of the sacrificial material layers with electrically conductive layers, portions of the electrically conductive layers in a memory region are electrically isolated from one another to provide independently controlled control gate electrodes for the memory devices, while portions of the electrically conductive layers in the transistor region are electrically shorted among one another to provide a single gate electrode for the switching field effect transistor.