Speech - Address by Ms Low Khah Gek, Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Technical Education, at 2019 ITE Graduation Ceremony, at ITE Auditorium, Tay Eng Soon Convention Centre, on 17 July 2019, 3.30 pm

Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education Mr Bob Tan, Chairman, ITE

Members of the ITE Board of Governors Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Industry Partners Graduands

Parents

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

1                Today, we celebrate the graduation and achievements of 14,781 students and adult learners from ITE’s Full-time, Part-time and Traineeship courses for Academic Year 2018/2019.

2                Graduands, your achievements are both the result of your own hard work and perseverance as well as the dedication of your lecturers and the support of your family members. I invite everyone to express our congratulations to the graduands and their family members as well as our appreciation to the ITE lecturers.

Continuous Organisational Excellence for Strong Student Outcomes

3                At ITE, we are passionate and committed to delivering a quality career and technical education. To do this, we are constantly transforming, innovating and revising our programmes and processes. Last October, ITE was awarded the Singapore Quality Award with Special Commendation, the pinnacle award for organisational excellence. This award bears testimony to ITE’s commitment towards providing the best learning experience and outcomes for all our students.

Journey of Discovery and Growth

4                Reflecting on the time spent in ITE, I am sure our graduands will agree that it had been a journey of discovery and growth. ITE offers a wide variety of experiences and opportunities for students to explore their varied interests, discover their strengths and grow their potential. Our graduands have benefited from real-world authentic learning, internship with companies as well as community and overseas experiences. Through these, they acquired industry-relevant skills, critical lifeskills and greater confidence, and are well-equipped to step forward boldly into their future.

5                ITE graduands have diverse options when they leave ITE. Some have chosen to immediately begin their careers and pursue full-time work, some pursue a work-study option and others have chosen full-time studies. Let me highlight the stories of 5 graduands present today to illustrate their options and choices:

1. Fion Chua Min Jun. Fion has chosen a work-study option. After graduating from the Higher Nitec in Electronics Engineering course, Fion joined ST Microelectronics as an Equipment Technician in April this year. In the next 2.5 years, while Fion is working and receiving a regular salary, she is also learning under the supervision of experienced mentors at ST Microelectronics. Fion will acquire skills and competencies that will enable her to take on a higher level job of Senior Staff Technical Specialist and she will also achieve a Work-Learn Technical Diploma in Microelectronics. We wish her an enriching journey and success!

2. Abdul Syafiq Bin Abdullah. Syafiq graduated with a GPA of 3.8 from the Nitec in Automotive Technology course and is currently pursuing ITE’s Technical Engineer Diploma in Automotive Engineering. Syafiq has used the opportunities at ITE well in discovering and honing his strengths. He won a Gold Medal at the 2018 WorldSkills Singapore competition in the Automotive skill category and will be representing Singapore at the international WorldSkills Competition in Kazan, Russia, next month. We wish him all the best for the WorldSkills competition!
    

3. Shervonne Pan Shao Yee. Shervonne is another ITE representative in Team Singapore at the WorldSkills Competition in Kazan. Shervonne’s ITE journey has been less conventional. Instead of pursuing a full-time Nitec course at ITE, Shervonne did the Nitec in Food & Beverage Operations course in the Traineeship mode. She worked and trained at Sheraton Towers and attended lessons at ITE one day a week. She did this work-study traineeship approach for two years in 2016-2017. After completing the Nitec course, Shervonne decided to pursue a full-time Higher Nitec in Hospitality Operations course and graduated in Mar 2019. In 2018, Shervonne represented ITE at the WorldSkills Singapore Competition in the Hotel Reception skills category and won a Gold Medal and is selected to represent Singapore next month at the Worldskills Competition. Shervonne has just graduated with a perfect Grade Point Average of 4.0 and will be receiving the Ngee Ann Kongsi Gold Medal today.

4. Muhammad Suzairee (Su-zai-ree) is from the pioneer cohort of students from Crest Secondary School, which is one of two Specialised Schools for Normal Technical students. At Crest Secondary, Suzairee pursued a mix of N-Level subjects (English, Math and Mother Tongue) and an ITE Skills Certificate in Facility Services, which involved 250 hours of work experience. The strong foundation laid by Crest Secondary enabled Suzairee to perform well at ITE and he achieved an almost perfect GPA of 3.88 in the Nitec in Facility Technology course. Suzairee has progressed to the Clean Energy Management Diploma programme at Ngee Ann Poly. Congratulations, Suzairee!

5. Kenny Tan Wei Lun. Kenny is a good example of an ITE graduate who had chosen to pursue full-time work upon graduating and then years later, had returned to ITE for skills upgrading. Kenny graduated from ITE in 2002 with a Nitec in Mechatronics. He worked in the construction industry and the Fibre Optic industry and now 17 years later, enrolled in the CET Higher Nitec in Electronics Engineering course to upskill himself. Kenny graduated in March this year and in May, he made a successful career switch to join ST Electronics as a Senior Associate Engineer.

Conclusion

1. I hope we are encouraged by the five stories of our graduands. Different choices, options and pathways open up for all our gradands. To all 14,781 graduands, ITE is gratified to have been a part of your journey of discovery and growth. Whatever pathway and option you have embarked on upon graduating from ITE, we are confident that you will continue to learn, thrive and succeed.
   

2. Once again, our Congratulations on your current achievements. We wish you more success and achievements in the years ahead!

Thank you.