SINGAPORE - Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students will have a structured education and career guidance curriculum from this year.
Starting from this year's new intake of students, the curriculum will take up 40 to 60 hours over three and two years for polytechnics and ITE respectively.
From this year, there will also be six career counsellors at each polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education college, and one for every five secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institute. A pool of 100 of these counsellors will be trained by 2017, and they will be centrally recruited and deployed by the Education Ministry.
The internship curriculums for all ITE and polytechnic courses will be made more structured with specific learning outcomes. This is expected to be completed by 2020.
Some internships will be extended, such as the internship in the Diploma in Marine and Offshore Technology programme at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, which will last six months, up from three months now.
To help more students gain overseas work and study experience, IE Singapore's Young Talent Programme will be expanded to cover all polytechnics and the ITE, up from just some local universities now. Students will be able to apply for the programme through participating education institutes from the third quarter of this year.
IE Singapore and the educational institutes will co-fund subsistence allowances for students on the immersion programme.
The new programmes are part of the new SkillsFuture plan announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Monday during the Budget speech.
