Giving on-the-job training a fresh twist, Temasek Polytechnic (TP) now houses a professional digital agency on its campus.

Last Friday, TP and DDB Worldwide launched a satellite office of Equator, which is DDB Worldwide's global centre of excellence for technology and innovation, based in Singapore.

This is the first time a marketing company has set up an office in a school in Singapore.

Ms Low Yen Ling, who is Parliamentary Secretary (Education & Trade and Industry), witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the two parties.

Equator provides technology solutions for DDB's clients worldwide. With the launch of the satellite office at TP, students will get to work alongside Equator staff on some of these projects.

TP principal and chief executive officer Peter Lam said: "It will give our students valuable opportunities for authentic learning as they work in multi-disciplinary teams, on real-life projects, with leading practitioners from the creative industry, right here on our campus."

The multi-disciplinary projects will see students from diverse diploma backgrounds collaborating through internships.

A pool of students from the informatics & IT, design, engineering and business schools will serve their internships at the on-campus agency.

They will go through a learning programme, interact with real clients and be mentored by Equator's industry professionals.

Diploma in communication design student Geneve Kwek, 18, said she joined the team "to push myself further and learn from industry giants". She has been creating infographics and mining data for an emergency response mobile app that DDB Worldwide is developing.

"Beyond commercial innovation, DDB Worldwide hopes to invest in and groom the next generation of creative technologists in Singapore," said DDB Asia's chief executive officer David Tang.

"We are thrilled to have TP students working alongside our staff as we strive to make Singapore a global hub for tech innovation."