Culinary Art: ITE’s collaboration with the Institut Paul Bocuse (IPB) includes staff and student exchanges. Here, IPB Chef & Lecturer, Mr Thomas Lemaire (centre) shares cooking tips with Nitec in Culinary Skills (Western) student, Lydia Yana bte Abdul Rahim (in red cap), in the kitchen of ITE’s training restaurant, Amber@West.

GLOBAL LINKAGES

In FY 2007, ITE consolidated its partnership with industry and strengthened its niche areas through 16 new MoUs, worth some $2.8 million. Inked with industry partners, such as Caterpillar Asia, NORDAM Singapore Pte Ltd and the Republic of Singapore Navy, the MoUs provided technological know-how, hardware and software to strengthen ITE’s programmes and capabilities. This strengthening of linkage with industry provided a useful platform for staff to enhance their capabilities through industry projects upon request of enterprises.

ITE also established several significant international partnerships during the year in review. Two new MoUs were forged with renowned hospitality and culinary schools in Europe – the International Hotel Management Institute (IMI), Switzerland, and the Institut Paul Bocuse (IPB), France – to further enhance ITE’s global presence in the field. In March 2008, ITE became the first and only education institution in Southeast Asia to join the IPB Worldwide Alliance – an exclusive grouping of the world’s 10 finest institutions in hospitality and restaurant management.

Links with existing international partners – the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Baden-Württemberg (KM), Germany, and the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council (HKVTC) – were renewed with the signing of two supplemental MoUs in FY 2007. The five-year MoU with KM paved the way for ITE’s first niche diploma programme, the Technical Engineer Diploma (TED) in Machine Technology. Commencing in April 2008, the two-year course would provide ITE graduates with opportunities for progression to Universities of Applied Sciences in Germany.

A member of the Global Education Network (GEN) since September 2006, ITE participated in the 2007 GEN Strategic Planning Conference for the first time, to plan strategic directions for collaboration among GEN members, which included SAIT Polytechnic (Canada), Kirkwood Community College (USA) and Box Hill Institute (Australia). Membership in the Network paved the way for student and staff exchanges both ways with member countries during the year, resulting in rich learning opportunities for ITE students and faculty.

Additionally, a total of 168 overseas industry attachment placements for ITE students were secured under the ITE Alumni Association Overseas Chapter with the signing of MoUs with eight industry partners in Shanghai, China.