ITE students build online education and career guide they wish had existed for them

SINGAPORE - A group of ITE students has created a single repository to help peers navigate education and career choices – the kind of resource they wished they had in secondary school when figuring out their next steps.

ITE College East students Hadirah Marsya, Wong Hao Ran, and Qurratu Janna, together with their teammates, built NavigaITE, an online platform offering career interest assessments, course directories and an AI-powered mock interview chatbot.

For many secondary school and ITE students, deciding on what to do after their exams can feel overwhelming and confusing, Janna, 18, said. She is currently pursuing a Higher Nitec in logistics and supply chain management.

Currently, information for more than 300 courses offered by ITE and Singapore’s five polytechnics is spread across different institution websites.

“I had to toggle between different websites, talk to different people, and then piece all that information together, so it was very overwhelming,” she said, recounting her own experience. “We realised that many other students are also struggling with this, so we decided to create this platform.”

The platform was launched on June 23.

Some 25 students were involved in its development including research and website development. Their project was one of those featured at the ITE-VTC International Student Seminar, a tie-up between ITE and Hong Kong’s Vocational Training Council, where students share research and present solutions to global challenges.

Its career interest assessment, said Wong, helps students better understand their strengths and interests. It is based on the RIASEC framework – a widely used model that groups individuals into six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.

The assessment helps students identify suitable career paths, rather than relying on peer influence or limited information when making decisions.

The website also has a course directory that covers all three ITE colleges and all five polytechnics in Singapore. Each course will be tagged according to one or two RIASEC categories, so students can see which courses match their profiles.

Another feature, the AI-chatbot, helps students practise answering common questions asked during interviews for the Early Admissions Exercise (EAE), jobs or internships. The bot gives feedback along the way.

Wong, 18, who has used the chatbot, said: “It helped me to be more confident during my interview as I already knew what to say, what to do, and I was mentally prepared for it.”

Students can also upload their resume for AI-powered feedback. The AI will point out strengths in the resume and mistakes like typos, suggest skills and prompt students to add other experiences they may have had.

Other features include EAE portfolio and resume guides, templates and a cut-off-point calculator for entry into courses based on students’ O- and N-level scores.

It took about five months to build the platform, said Janna, with support from ITE lecturers and mentors.

This included conducting needs analysis, developing the AI-powered chatbot and holding community outreach programmes, including demonstrations for secondary school students and career guidance sessions for ITE students.

Secondary school students have given positive feedback, said Marsya.

“They found the quiz, EAE portfolio guide and interview preparation relevant,” the 18-year-old said. “They said it was straightforward and easier for them to decide what they wanted to do in the future.

“Some of them even said that they did not know that there were that many courses available for them until they saw the list on the platform.”

Wong said: “We understand the struggle, fear, and expectations when it comes to picking a course.”

Sometimes students may face pressure from parents, teachers, or peers to join a particular course, he said. “But (the student) will understand themselves best, and we want students to use this platform to slowly learn more about their interests and decide for themselves what they want to pursue in the future.”

Janna said the team hopes that students will be more confident as they make decisions.

“If we help the students move from feeling confused to feeling prepared and confident, we believe that we have reached our goal,” she said. “We want to empower students to take ownership over their educational journey.”

Janna added that the aim is also to ensure students from different backgrounds can benefit from the same quality of guidance and access to resources.

The students behind NavigaITE say they are not done.

In the near term, they are working on compiling a full list of available courses. Plans include expanding the platform’s reach to support polytechnic and university students, integrating industry mentoring opportunities, and developing personalised AI career recommendations.