SINGAPORE - All courses offered by the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) will have compulsory internships by 2020. And from this year, all students will have to go through 40 hours of training to get them ready for their careers.

These moves were announced by ITE's deputy chief executive, Ms Sabrina Loi, on Monday, as she laid out the institute's five-year plan, which aims to shift from a technical skills-based education to one which centres more on the student's career.

Said ITE's chief executive, Mr Bruce Poh : "With the new strategic plan, we are putting more emphasis on students to be career-ready."

About six in 10 of ITE's courses have an internship component now, but they tend to be more loosely managed, with interns performing tasks on an ad-hoc basis.

Students also learn career skills as part of a life skills module, which covers areas such as public speaking and project management.

But from this year, they will get 40 hours of training, spread over two years, focusing just on career readiness.

Apart from resume writing and interview skills, Mr Poh said it will also include industry visits, to allow students to better understand their future job options.