ITE students to get shorter route to Higher Nitec from 2022

Students at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) will take a shorter route to the Higher Nitec certificate as part of a modified curriculum that will start taking effect next year.

Some 16 ITE courses will merge into eight next year and students signing up for them will proceed straight to the Higher Nitec course and graduate in three years, instead of four years now.

About 2,000 students are expected to sign up next year for these courses.

Now, students usually spend two years at the Nitec level and then another two years for Higher Nitec.

Ms Hemalatha Puvanenthiran, 22, who graduated from the Higher Nitec course in international logistics last year, said: "I would have made use of the extra one year to start work earlier and explore the industry by trying out different jobs and gaining more work experience. That would have helped me plan my future better."

She is currently pursuing a work-study diploma, returning to ITE on Thursdays for classes.

Second Minister for Education Maliki Osman, who yesterday announced the changes in a speech at ITE College East, also launched the ITE-Sembcorp Centre for Sustainable Solutions, which is located at the campus.

Dr Maliki said the centre would provide students with the necessary skills to work in the sustainable technologies sector, where 55,000 jobs are expected to be added over the next 10 years.

The 16 courses form the first phase of a transition that will see all courses moving to the three-year Higher Nitec programme by 2026. The programmes picked comprise eight Nitec courses and eight Higher Nitec courses.

The Ministry of Education said that 80 per cent of all courses that ITE offers are expected to transition to the new three-year structure by 2024, with all courses completing the move by 2026.

Dr Maliki, who has been leading a review of polytechnic and ITE education since the end of last year, said: "This move is in line with the Ministry of Education's commitment to provide opportunities for all ITE graduates to upgrade beyond a Nitec over the course of their careers by 2030, as announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during the National Day Rally in 2019."

He added that the curriculum structure will be streamlined by removing overlapping areas of teaching in the current Nitec and Higher Nitec courses.

ITE currently offers the Nitec and Higher Nitec courses separately. Students who complete the Nitec and want to enrol in a Higher Nitec course need to apply to do so.

However, some students - including those who did well academically during their Nitec years and those who applied with O-level certificates - have been able to take shorter routes towards a Higher Nitec qualification.

Currently, about 46 per cent of students who finish at the Nitec level do not enrol in the Higher Nitec course immediately.

MOE said some students go on to full-time work, pursue polytechnic diplomas or work-study diploma programmes. Some also do not make the grade for Higher Nitec courses due to their Nitec results.

But there are others who return to do their Higher Nitec after working for a few years.

MOE said that although students will be encouraged to complete the full three years under the new curriculum structure, those who have to leave after two years will still be granted the Nitec certification. In any case, there is no timeframe for students to return to ITE to finish their Higher Nitec certification.

An MOE spokesman said: "We hope that with more bursary support that started in 2020, students will not have to leave due to financial reasons, and they get to enjoy the full three years of the programme.

"Our students are very young when they go out to work; they have a whole 40, 45 years of work ahead of them.

"We are more than happy to support them when they want to come back and to re-admit them in the future."