Percentage of Full-time ITE Students on Internships

6 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) (a) what is the current percentage of full-time ITE students being able to secure internships and part-time jobs to add value to their training throughout their course; (b) how does ITE's Career Services Centre help place ITE students in internships; (c) what measures are in place to expand internship opportunities for ITE students; and (d) how many ITE graduates eventually work in the industries that they have been trained for.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)): Currently, internship modules have been made compulsory in 68 out of 98 courses in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). This means that more than half of the full-time students now enrolled in ITE would have done an internship by the time they graduate. ITE targets for all full-time National Institute of Technical Education Certificate (Nitec) and Higher Nitec courses to include internships by 2020.

Given the vocational nature of ITE courses, hands-on training is already an integral part of the curriculum for its students. Students may take up internships to reinforce their learning in the workplace. ITE matches students’ internships to internship places based on factors, such as their course of study, interests and also where they stay.

ITE has a dedicated team that will continue to engage its industry partners and trade associations to expand internship opportunities for its students. It will also raise the quality of internships and make it a meaningful experience for students by introducing structured mentorships, defining learning outcomes and jointly conducting performance management with the industry partners.

Based on the results from the 2016 Graduate Employment Survey of the ITE graduates in full-time permanent jobs, around 55% reported that they were working in jobs related to their course of study. Beyond training targeted at entry into specific industries or even related jobs, ITE graduates are also equipped with the skills that are transferrable across industries and sectors. This gives them greater adaptability as the national manpower needs shift due to technological change and economic restructuring.

Mr Speaker: Mr Saktiandi Supaat.

Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh): I would like to thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the answer. I have two supplementary questions, two quick ones. The first one is with regard to the internship statistics that the Senior Parliamentary Secretary shared earlier. Can the Senior Parliamentary Secretary explain whether there is any differentiation between the traineeship programme that is being done in ITE where employers wish to send their employees to ITE and sort of fund them? Is it separate from the internship statistics that the Senior Parliamentary Secretary shared earlier?

Secondly, in terms of the Education and Career Guidance (ECG) that is provided in ITE, can the Senior Parliamentary Secretary share a bit more about the resources that have been allocated to ITE in terms of career guidance and career counselling, and if she can shed a bit of light into how successful they are and how much of the resources that have already been put in to encourage more ITE students to take up internships, and also to encourage employers to take in ITE students as part of their internship programme?

Ms Low Yen Ling: Mr Speaker, I want to thank the Member, Mr Saktiandi Supaat, for his two supplementary questions.

Let me touch on the first question. When the Member asked about trainees sent by corporations to ITE, this is in appreciation by the employers that ITE's training is vocational by nature. The Member is really asking about companies sending their workers to go to ITE for training, maybe at night or part-time learning, and so that is a separate programme viz-a-viz sending ITE students to companies. So, if the Member could file a separate Parliamentary Question (PQ), we will be very happy to provide more information on that component.

The second question is on ECG. ECG was rolled out about two years ago and, by now, we have close to 100 education and career guidance counsellors in the polytechnics, ITEs and also secondary schools. Every ITE and polytechnic campus is assigned six ECG counsellors and the remaining counsellors are assigned to secondary schools where four secondary schools will be looked after by one counsellor. These counsellors are recruited based on key considerations, such as their experience in the sector, and many of them would have very rich experience in industry.

Having said that, we pay a lot of attention to their professional development, which is why, every month, we will arrange for the ECG counsellors to attend briefings and training, not just classroom training but also field trips to the various industries, like Jurong Island or even LaunchPad@Jurong. It is important that they have insights into the latest labour market information and also understand the key industry trends, as well as the developments in the 23 Industry Transformation Maps.

In the school, the ECG counsellors, for example, ITE will work very closely with the lecturers ‒ actually they are called class coaches ‒ and arrange for the ECG counsellors to have coaching sessions with the class, as well as one-on-one sessions, if the students need.

Other than the ECG counsellors ‒ because every campus is assigned six counsellors ‒ in order for students to really understand the benefits of internship, the lecturers play an important role. And this is why in the ITE we pay a lot of attention to pre-internship briefings for students to set the right expectations, share common expectations and also guidelines of the internship arrangement.

Even during the internship, ITE lecturers will pay regular visits to the students to make sure that the learning outcomes are fulfilled. And after the internship, we will conduct feedback surveys to understand if their experience has fulfilled the learning objectives that were outlined before the internship. Through our surveys, we may cease partnership with partnership companies that have breached the terms of the internship partnership agreement or have consistently received poor student outcomes. So, the welfare, the learning outcome of the student, are at the heart of our ITE internship programme.

Mr Speaker: Mr Saktiandi Supaat.

Mr Saktiandi Supaat: Can the Ministry share if it intends to increase the number of ECGs in the ITEs from the six currently? I see the importance of internship for the ITE students, especially as it helps them to go into the industry as well.

Ms Low Yen Ling: The ECG initiative is about two years old and we are looking at it very closely in terms of how it has helped our students better understand how they can navigate and also make an informed decision for their education and career pathways.

Other than the one-on-one coaching with the students, where the ECG counsellors can also make a good impact is sharing the philosophy of what pedagogies are with the lecturers and the class coach, so that they can also impart and facilitate these decision makings by the students accordingly.

I must add that other than the ECG counsellors, the companies play an important role. To this end, not just the Ministry of Education, but even the Ministry of Trade and Industry agencies like SPRING Singapore, through their small and medium enterprises (SME) Talent Programme and their SME Mentors' Programme, work very closely with ITE to extend meaningful internship opportunities for ITE students.

Mr Speaker: Mr Azmoon Ahmad.

Mr Azmoon Ahmad (Nominated Member): I have a supplementary question for the hon Senior Parliamentary Secretary. It is good to know that there are internship programmes at the ITE. It is good to know that there are also target objectives for the institution. But I would like to know whether these targets have been deployed and brought down to the lecturers. Are these lecturers also being measured on whether they have done the internship programmes correctly on them?

Ms Low Yen Ling: The lecturers and the class coaches play an integral role in terms of preparing the students well mentally before they go into an internship. This is why we conduct pre-internship briefings for students, so that the expectations of both the students and also the companies' side are fairly aligned.

In addition, the ITE lecturers will pay regular visits to the partner companies to make sure that the students are doing well during the stint. After the internship stint, the ITE campus will conduct a post-internship survey where students can provide feedback on how their internship stint had been in terms of fulfilling the specified learning objectives by the ITE campus, whether it is East, West or Central, and also the class itself.

We will review all feedback and I want to assure the Member that lecturers play a key role. But this is not the only thing that the lecturers are doing. They are also teaching the students the curriculum and so on. So, if the Member has a particular question about key performance indicators for lecturers, he may wish to file a separate PQ and we will be very happy to provide more detailed information.