By Kezia Toh, The Straits Times, 31 Oct 2012
THE Institute of Technical Education (ITE) yesterday marked the completion of its third and largest mega campus in Ang Mo Kio.
The facility - occupying 10.6ha, which is about the size of 10 football fields - is the final piece in a 10-year national masterplan to raise the profile of vocational training in Singapore.
From next year, staff and students from five ITE campuses in Bishan, Balestier, MacPherson, Yishun and Tampines will start school at the new $380million ITE College Central.
The ITE's corporate headquarters will also move there.
ITE takes in the least academically inclined 25 per cent in each cohort of secondary school leavers. They take vocational courses that range from electronics and information technology to office skills.
In 2001, a plan was developed to cluster Singapore's 10 ITE schools into three mega campuses that will allow the institution to offer better facilities and greater choice in skills training.
The first of these mega campuses, dubbed ITE College East, was built in 2005 in Simei, costing $240million. This was followed in 2010 by the $260million ITE College West in Choa Chu Kang.
"These three mega campuses... will translate in no small part to the change of perception of the public to ITE education," ITE chief executive Bruce Poh said yesterday. "Locals sometimes still think that ITE is in this dingy little workshop."
Instead, visitors to ITE College Central will be wowed by a massive atrium with commercial eateries and retail outlets, a supermarket, a childcare centre and student-run shops offering services such as hairdressing.
The commercial amenities are open to the public, a move that will open the eyes of Singaporeans to what an ITE education is about, said deputy chief executive (academic) Tan Seng Hua.
Some of these retail outlets can also offer internships and employment for ITE students, he added.
Elsewhere on the new campus, students will find facilities such as an Olympic-sized swimming pool, an eight-lane running track and an indoor sports hall.
They will also benefit from authentic learning environments. A three-dimensional "immersion theatre" will simulate real-life environments, such as life on an oil rig for marine offshore engineering students.
In addition, aerospace technology students will study in a real-life aircraft hangar that houses a Boeing 737 jet and a corporate Learjet, and early childhood education students will train in a simulated pre-school classroom.
New courses such as floristry, fashion apparel production and design, and film-making will also be offered starting next year.
First-year student Jeremy Lau, 18, is eagerly looking forward to learning in the enlarged aircraft hangar. His old school - ITE Yishun - has a similar but much smaller facility.
The aspiring pilot said: "I am very excited to have a larger variety of aircraft in the school - from a passenger plane to a military helicopter. And the bigger space for us to move around in helps with learning."
Yesterday, the five ITE colleges marked the move to their new home with a 4.2km parade from ITE's Bishan campus and a symbolic lighting-up ceremony at Ang Mo Kio.
With its capacity for 10,400 students and 1,400 staff, bus services in and around the new ITE College Central have been ramped up.
The school is also exploring with the Land Transport Authority the introduction of dedicated bus services from the Bishan and Ang Mo Kio MRT stations.
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