ITE unveils $2.6m media hub to train students
The User Experience Hub will allow students to work on real commercial productions
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Media students at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) can now work on real commercial productions in a $2.6 million facility.
The new User Experience Hub at ITE College Central in Ang Mo Kio features a production studio, interactive screens in a gallery-style hallway and workstations with the latest technology.
Some of the courses supported by the hub include the Nitec in Digital Animation and the Higher Nitec in Visual Effects.
Media technology and content production company Cgangs International helped with the design and sponsorship of the studio, while its hardware and software were sponsored by Alibaba Cloud, Blackmagic Design Asia, Electronics and Engineering, HP Singapore and its partner Nvidia, Quantum Corporation, and SCash Global.
The seven partners inked their collaboration in a memorandum of understanding yesterday.
Cgangs is running some of its own operations at the media hub.
Among its full-time staff is ITE student Ong Xiu Ling, 25, who works as a junior production crew member while pursuing a Work-Study Diploma in Media Communication and Digital Marketing.
"Being able to work on real-life commercial projects is very good for students, and this facility lets them see their work on the big screen and exposes them to a real professional environment," she said.
Ms Ong is one of 17 Cgangs staff members based at the User Experience Hub. The company takes in ITE students as interns on major projects, and also trains other students as part of their coursework.
The facility is part of efforts by ITE to beef up and modernise its facilities to prepare its students for industry, job and work-flow transformation through collaboration with the industry, said ITE chief executive officer Low Khah Gek.
Getting the latest technology into ITE will help keep students up to date with the speed of change in the industry, and having established industry players come into the facility will help impart knowledge to students and staff, as well as the public through certification programmes, she said.
Cgangs business development director Alvin Lim said it is in the industry's interest to help prepare the next generation of workers.
"We take interns here, and once we train them up to a certain level, we don't differentiate between them and our full-time staff in assigning them work," he said, adding that the company hopes to work with other institutions too to grow the media ecosystem here.
