SINGAPORE - Some 8,000 students from ITE (Institute of Technical Education) College West will get the chance to be trained as student leaders of environment initiatives under a green-campus programme.

The ITE on Tuesday afternoon signed on to the Eco-Schools Programme, run in Singapore by the World Wide Fund for Nature or WWF.

It is the first tertiary institution here to be part of the programme, which began in Europe in 1994 and today involves more than 40,000 schools in more than 50 countries.

Participating schools must review their environmental performance and include green education in the curriculum.

In 2013, eight primary and secondary schools here were recruited into the programme's pilot phase. Participating schools carried out various green activities. For instance, Commonwealth Secondary School students did a biodiversity assessment, while those at Woodgrove Secondary organised waterway clean-ups.

Besides ITE College West, four other schools here also joined the programme this year.

ITE deputy principal, Dr Goh Mong Song, said the eco-campus programme would be extended to the other two ITE campuses in Simei and Ang Mo Kio by 2015.

The benefit of the scheme, he said, is that "students will become more aware that the environment movement will be successful only if the younger generation takes interest in and ownership of it".