PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Official Opening of ITE College West

Mr Bob Tan, Chairman, ITE Board of Governors
Mr Bruce Poh, CEO of ITE
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am happy to be here for the official opening of ITE College West.

Five years ago, we opened ITE’s first regional campus – ITE College East in Simei. Today’s opening is the second milestone move in ITE’s “One System Three Colleges” model. I look forward to opening of ITE College Central in 2013.

ITE College West will be a “College of Service and Innovation”. It will focus on culinary and hospitality services, land transport, security technology and service innovation. It will emphasise creating authentic and stimulating work settings, being equipped with training hotel, call centre, automotive Control & Engine Cells for student training. There is strong collaboration with industry — with the establishment Centres of Technology and Specialised Centres, e.g. Volkswagen Regional Centre and ITE-Boncafe Barista Training Centre.

Why does the government lavish resources and attention on ITE? Our aim is to develop every Singaporean to the best that he can be. Some are academically inclined, others are more talented in skills-based work. ITE educates students with “thinking hands”, to give students solid grounding and relevant skills for future employment.

Singapore facing a highly competitive environment, especially against China and India. This is putting pressure on Singaporeans whose jobs can be done more cheaply in these countries. In short term, government helping them cope in many ways, e.g. with “Grow & Share” package, Workfare. But education and skills are the only sustainable and effective way to uplift families. Taking care of lower-skilled workers already in the workforce through job and skills upgrading. We are determined to make sure that no young Singa­porean leaves our education system without the skills he needs to hold his own and make a good living for himself, and ITE is a critical element of this strategy.

We are very proud of what we have achieved, but remember it has taken decades to build up ITE to where it is today. Vocational training started in the 1960s, with the establishment of Singapore Vocational Institutes (SVI). From 1979, the Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB) took over all vocational training, to enable a concerted effort to re-skill workforce for higher value work. ITE established in 1992, when we made vocational education a post-secondary programme, so that all students would complete secondary education before going on to ITE. The Government invested heavily in ITE — top-notch infrastructure and industry-relevant curriculum. Most importantly we recruited capable teaching staff, with the right fit – able to connect with the students, and with the passion to inspire and motivate them to learn and succeed. ITE now a critical pillar of our education system – one student in five goes to ITE.

ITE is internationally renowned. It was recently mentioned The Economist’s special report on The Future of the State. It has also received many other accolades. To quote from one – the OECD Publication 2010 "Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education" — "In many countries, technical education is looked down upon as a dead-end option, of low quality and typically out of step with the changing needs of employers. But vocation education has been an important pathway in Singapore’s journey to educational excellence...The resources devoted to vocational and technical training are immense and the vocational and technical system is perhaps the best in the world – a significant element of the Singapore success story". When foreign visitors come here, they all want to see ITE. ITE has hosted the US Education Department, UNESCO, UNICEF and senior leaders from foreign countries.

There is so much interest because our achievement with ITE is unique. Singapore has an excellent schools system, but there are good schools systems elsewhere too, e.g. Finland. We have good universities, but so do many other countries. But hardly any other country has anything similar or comparable to ITE. This reflects our commitment to have an education system catering not just to an elite, but across the board to all our students.

ITE graduates much sought after by employers. Nine in ten employed within six months of job search, doing good jobs with opportunities for enhancement. Employers perceive ITE graduates well – 91% rate ITE graduates positively on work performance. There are many positive comments from thankful employers. Just read one from Sumitomo Chemical: “Positive in their thinking, have good working attitude and are willing to work hard.They are also honest, disciplined and independent”.

Quite a few students decide to further their education after graduating from ITE. About one-fifth move on to Polytechnics. We encourage this. We plan to enable one in four ITE students to progress to the Polytechnics by 2015. We will do this by adding more places in our Polytechnics, creating a pathway for ‘N’ Level graduates to pursue Higher NITEC courses at ITE instead of sitting for their ‘O’ Level exams, while assuring them of a place at the Polytechnics, and expanding part-time diploma opportunities so that ITE graduates can upgrade their skills after some working experience, and keep current with industry needs. We are building a flexible, porous education system, in which students can take multiple avenues to achieve their potential

The Government will continue to invest in vocational and technical education. MOE will spend $2 billion on ITE over the next five years to keep ITE on the cutting edge, prepare students for exciting future, and enable them to participate in and support our economic transformation. We will increase bursaries for lower-income students, to ensure that no deserving student will miss a quality post-secondary education. Students from the lowest one-third of households will have their education costs entirely covered. The Government will also help ITE build up its endowment fund by providing 1.5 times matching grants. The endowment can support financial aid, scholarships and enrichment programmes.

ITE has done well. It is a proven brand of education with an international reputation for excellence. I commend Board of Governors, management and staff on the opening of ITE College West. I urge students to take full advantage of the opportunities which the ITE offers, and continue to do the best for themselves and the country