Speech - Welcome Address by Ms Low Khah Gek, CEO/ITE, at the MOU Signing Ceremony between ITE and Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, on 22 March 2022, 1515hrs at ITE College East

Mr Tan Kiat How

Minister of State at the Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Communications and Information

Mr Neo Choon Keong

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Building and Construction Authority

Mr Lim Chup Huat

Executive Chairman, SoilBuild Construction Group Ltd

Mr Ganessaraj Soocelaraj

Group CEO, SoilBuild Construction Group Ltd

Industry Partners from BCA and SoilBuild

ITE colleagues and students

Ladies and Gentlemen

Attracting ITE Graduates into the Built Environment Industry

1. ITE has 6 Nitec, 6 Higher Nitec and 4 WSDip courses related to the Built Environment industry. Each year, about 660  Nitec students and 540 Higher Nitec students graduate from these courses. We hope many of them will choose to work in the Build Environment industry.

2. ITE deploys three strategies to ensure students have a good understanding of the job-roles and career opportunities in the Build Envrionment industry:

   1. We engage practitioners to talk to our students about their work, projects and career pathways and we organise industry visits for students to see the exciting developments in this sector.

   2. We collaborate with industry partners to provide quality internship;
      

   3. We partner with employers to co-train and enable ITE graduates working in this sector to acquire deeper skills, achieve a work-study diploma and career progression. This April, the intake for the 4 WSDip courses is 96 WSDip trainees.

Partnership with Soilbuild

3. ITE is very glad to have garnered the support of a significant building industry leader, Soilbuild. Over the last 41 years, SoilBuild has built an impressive track record of constructing, developing and managing a wide range as well as award-winning portfolio of residential and business properties, including numerous purpose-built Bizhubs occupied by MNCs and SMEs.

4. Soilbuild has one of the largest Integrated Construction and Precast Hub in Singapore and this facility clearly demonstrates Soilbuild’s progressive capabilities in DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly), and PPVC (Pre-fabricated, Pre-Finished, Volumetric Construction). I have the pleasure of visiting this facility last October and I am  particularly impressed with Soilbuild’s commitment to pioneer and adopt new approaches to achieve substantial productivity gains in the building industry.

5. There are four areas of collaboration in this partnership between ITE and Soilbuild:

   1. Training curriculum and resources. SoilBuild will provide their technical expertise to support ITE in developing our training curriculum and resources on precast and prefabrication processes as well as digital workflow in building construction.

   2. BIM Case Studies. Soilbuild will share with ITE  appropriate BIM models (architectural, civil, structural, mechanical and electrical) which ITE could adopt as case studies  so our students can learn through real-world,  authentic examples.

   3. CET Training. ITE and Soilbuild will co-develop and co-deliver training courses for adult learners and contribute towards upskilling those working in the BE industry.

   4. Book Prizes and Course Medals. Soilbuild’s book prizes for the Nitec/Higher Nitec graduands and Course Medals for WSDip programmes demonstrate their strong support for ITE graduates to build their career in this industry.

Conclusion

6. My ITE colleagues, students, and I look forward to the new opportunities and possibilities generated as a result of our partnership with Soilbuild. Together, we can look forward to building a stronger pipeline of talents as well as uplifting the workers in the Built Environment Sector.

Thank you.