Speech - Opening address by Ms Low Khah Gek, CEO/ITE, at the ITE Industry Partnership Forum held on Monday 8 November 2021, at 1500 hours at the Hall, Tay Eng Soon Convention Centre, ITE Headquarters

Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Ministry of Trade & Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth

Mr Andrew Chong, Chairman, ITE

Industry Partners 

ITE Colleagues

Ladies and Gentlemen

ITE organises this Industry Partnership Forum for thought leaders and industry partners to connect and share as well as inspire further innovations and collaborations. 

The focus of this forum is Workplace Learning and Workforce Training. Doing these two dimensions well will enable companies and organisations to raise the capability of their workforce, enable business growth and transformation as well as be competitive in the global economy. 

ITE is glad to play a role in supporting companies for both ‘workplace learning’ and ‘workforce training’. We do this in four ways:

1. Certified On-the-Job Training Centre (COJTC) Scheme
   ITE supports companies to develop their OJT blueprint and build a structured system and process to credentialise the employees’ OJT skills mastery.

2. Train-The-Trainer (TTT) Programme
   Many companies have identified and deployed suitable supervisors to the role of training other employees or interns. These supervisors need to be equipped for this role. ITE provides training for these company trainers/supervisors and equip them with OJT curriculum development, coaching, pedagogy and assessment competencies.

3. Work-Study Diploma Programmes
   More than 400 companies are ITE’s training partners, providing structured training to enable selected employees to achieve a Work-Study Diploma. This is a winwin-win value proposition for the company, the WSDip trainee and ITE. The company gets to develop their talents, the trainee receives skills upgrading and a diploma and ITE is happy more of her graduates are able build both their skills and their careers.

4. Applied Technology Solutions 
   Companies have approached ITE to develop practical workplace solutions which they could immediately deploy to enhance their business output and productivity. We have arranged for a showcase of some of these projects. 

Guest Speakers 

Switzerland is one country that has done ‘workplace training’ particularly well. They have 200 years of apprenticeship culture. Hence, we have invited Mr Xavier Nietlisbach whom we met in one of our visits to Switzerland to share with us on the topic of Apprenticeship-based Learning and Workplace Training in Switzerland. 

We are also thrilled to have two COJTC partners, SPH and DNATA Singapore to share their workplace training experiences.

Later in the programme, ITE is formalising our partnership with six companies. These new partnerships will open up new exciting opportunities for our students, staff and graduates: 

• GlobalFoundries Singapore and Micron Semiconductor Asia Operations – collaborate in microelectronics manufacturing processes and training

• Katoen Natie Singapore – collaborate in logistics and engineering servicestraining

• OMRON Electronics – collaborate in smart technology solutioning and training

• Sunseap Group – collaborate in clean energy and sustainable greentechnologies and training

• Volocopter Asia Holdings – collaborate in Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL)

We thank our Guest-of-Honour for gracing today’s Industry Partnership Forum and all our industry partners for your  unwavering support for ITE. We wish everyone a fruitful session ahead and may we all be energised and inspired. 

Thank you.