Press Release - ITE Offers 30 Gifts for the Community in Celebration of Its 30th Anniversary

News Release No. 11/22

ITE gives back to the community by offering 30 specially curated skills workshops under its newly launched ‘ITE’s 30 Gifts for the Community’ Programme

As part of its 30^th Anniversary celebrations, ITE will be launching the ‘ITE’s 30 Gifts for the Community’ Programme as an appreciation for the community’s support and involvement in ITE’s transformation over the last 30 years. The programme, which will start from 13 July and end in October, offers 30 specially curated skills workshops – ranging from beauty and skincare, sports, health and wellness, visual acuity, photography and baking, to mobile phone app creation, drone piloting, home maintenance, digital fraud prevention and others (refer to the full list in Annex A).

On Wednesday, 13 July 2022, Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Education and Manpower, will launch ‘ITE’s 30 Gifts for the Community’ Programme at ITE College East.  ITE will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Diversey, a leading global company that provides solutions to the cleaning and hygiene industry. 

The collaboration aims at driving environmental sustainability projects that create awareness on climate change issues and build green capability through environmental engagement activities. Under the collaboration, both organisations will also set up community projects to help and benefit the underprivileged community both locally and overseas. Through these activities, ITE students will also learn about environmental sustainability and engage in community service through Diversey’s signature programmes that would be showcased at the launch event.

Adding Value to Education Landscape

Ms Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Education and Manpower, said, “ITE has been instrumental in enabling Singapore’s economic success by training and equipping the workforce with relevant technical skills. Over the past 30 years, ITE has consistently evolved its infrastructure and programmes, and worked hand in hand with the community and industry partners to provide a holistic education for the students. I am heartened by ITE’s gesture to mark its 30^th Anniversary by sharing the skills of its staff and students with the community through these workshops.”

‘Soap for Hope’ & ‘CoffeeBriques’

About 30 students from ITE and 18 students from Delta Senior School and Metta School will jointly make soaps from soap silvers donated by Conrad Centennial Singapore and coffee bricks with special press machines made by ITE, which are improvised versions of Diversey’s original press machines. This is part of Diversey’s signature ‘Soap For Hope’ project which teaches at-risk communities to salvage hotels' soap slivers and turn them into new soap bars, while the ‘CoffeeBriques’ project recycles coffee grounds into bricks, replacing charcoal for burning.

Moving forward, ITE will partner Diversey in these two projects where trained ITE students will buddy students from Delta Senior and Metta Schools to make soap and coffee bricks for the underprivileged community in Singapore. ITE students will also join Diversey to extend these projects overseas.

The soap made at the event will be given to beneficiaries from Changi Lodge, Choa Chu Kang Dormitory, Fei Yue SAC, Pacific SAC, Tung Ling SAC, St Hilda SAC, Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) Active Ageing Centre, Lions Befrienders Active Ageing Centre, and COMNET Active Ageing Centre.

‘Linens for Life’

At the event, 10 students from ITE will work alongside seniors from COMNET Active Ageing Centre (by AMKFSC Community Services Ltd) to sew tote bags from hotel linens provided by Systematic Laundry.

The ‘Linens for Life’ project aims to provide a livelihood for the underprivileged community through creative conversions of used linens into items for sale. Hotel bedsheets and pillow cases that are otherwise discarded by hotels are collected, washed and distributed by Systematic Laundry to ‘Linens for Life’ project community partners for upcycling into new and useful items that can be sold for an income.