7 September 2002

ADDRESS BY DR NG ENG HEN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER, AT THE GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY
FOR THE FIRST ITE REGIONAL CAMPUS
ON SATURDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER 2002 AT 0930 HOURS AT SIMEI AVENUE

1 I am pleased to join you here this morning for the ground-breaking ceremony of the first ITE Regional Campus. This is indeed an important milestone in the continual development of the technical education and training system in Singapore. It reaffirms our strong commitment in providing a best-in-its-class technical education for school leavers and working adults in the new economy.

2 Vocational and technical education in Singapore has undergone several major phases of development over the last four decades. It started off as a Technical Education Department (TED) in 1968 in the Ministry of Education but evolved into a system of vocational training (outside the school system) under the former Industrial Training Board (ITB) in 1973. This was followed by the establishment of the Vocational and Industrial Training Board in 1979 and, more recently, the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in 1992. These changes have brought vocational and technical education in line with the changing needs of the education system, school leavers and economy.

3 Today, ITE is an established post-secondary technical education institution. Over 95% of its students now hold the GCE 'O' or 'N' level qualifications. Operating through a system of ten campuses, training is characterised by its comprehensive quality programmes, a supportive learning environment and successful graduates. Recently, ITE hosted a series of 3 visits for Members of Parliament to its Tampines, Bukit Batok and Macpherson institutes. The MPs unanimously agreed that the current technical training institutes, with their modern and well-equipped facilities, had changed their original perception of technical education in ITE. They were equally impressed to learn that even in this economic recession, 88% of ITE graduates surveyed in 2002 were able to obtain their first full-time job offer within 3 months. This is testimony to the high regard employers place on the value of an ITE education.

4 ITE's ability to attract students to post-secondary technical education is indeed a strategic strength for Singapore and something which we would do well to preserve. Am I over-stating ITE's importance? The Straits Times reported in August how a third of Hong Kong students did not progress beyond their secondary four equivalent. Instead of acquiring a technical education, they joined the workforce and swelled the numbers of young, unskilled and unemployed. The fact that we can enable this group of students in Singapore to remain highly employable and retain their dignity is a resounding success.

5 ITE has indeed come a long way. Students in ITE today do not only focus on the acquisition of knowledge and skills, but also the values for lifelong learning. As such, besides taking core and elective modules in the respective areas of training, all ITE students also take "employability skills" modules, such as communication skills, interpersonal skills and information technology. The "elective" modules encourage inter-disciplinary learning, project collaboration and teamwork. ITE has also adopted a process-based pedagogic model, which imparts technical, methodological and social competencies to its students. The educational objective is to produce "thinking doers", who will be able to better adapt to the changing needs of the new economy.

6 The transformation of technical education is a continuing process. There will no doubt be new challenges for ITE to continue to remain relevant to our economy and its prospective students. In response to the needs for new skills, students in ITE today have a choice of courses in Info-Communications Technology, Multimedia Technology, E-Commerce, Chemical Process Technology and Wafer Fabrication. Having successfully completed the development of its present system of ten campuses, ITE is now embarking on plan to develop three Regional Campuses over the next fifteen years.

7 Each new Regional Campus, which will have a full-time student enrolment of 7,200 and a part-time enrolment of 8,000, would be able to provide a more comprehensive and integrated learning environment for students and adult learners. A wider range of courses in engineering, applied sciences, info-communications, business studies and services would be available in the new Regional Campus. This would not only widen the choice of courses for students, but will also help to facilitate inter-disciplinary learning. With greater collaboration among students and staff in a bigger campus setting, there will be more opportunities for synergy and cross-fertilisation of ideas for innovative learning and curriculum delivery, leading to a more vibrant-campus-environment.

8 The economies of scale of a bigger campus would enable ITE to provide a wider range of co-curricular facilities and student amenities for its students. Such an environment can better support ITE's focus on the total development of its students and its educational outcome of moulding knowledgeable, well-trained, active and confident graduates, who are ready to contribute to society and serve the community.

9 By consolidating the training resources in a bigger campus, ITE could better optimise the utilisation of its specialised facilities and the core expertise and competencies of its staff. There will be greater opportunities to establish stronger linkages with industry and promote the spirit of entrepreneurship among students by establishing Centres of Excellence and Technopreneurship Incubation Centre.

10 The concept of a Regional Campus goes beyond the physical and infrastructural aspects. It embodies opportunities for breakthrough changes in educational approaches, systems, processes and practices. All these possibilities and changes will further reinforce the standing of ITE as an established post-secondary education institution.

11 In conclusion, the development of the first ITE Regional Campus is a significant milestone in the further transformation of ITE's system of training. The concept of a Regional Campus is another important breakthrough in repositioning ITE for the challenges of the new economy. With this repositioning, the ITE graduate will have more reasons to be proud of his training, his alma mater and his contribution to our society.