Enhanced Curriculum Structure for Higher Nitec Certification and Help for Students who may Struggle

Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Education with regard to the new enhanced curricular structure for ITE students whereby students will experience a three-year pathway leading directly to a Higher Nitec certification (a) what are the Ministry's plans for students who find it more difficult to cope under the new structure; and (b) what are the plans to provide additional support and academic coaching to support them in completing their Higher Nitec certification.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the new Institute of Technical Education (ITE) curricular structure seeks to equip ITE graduates with deeper industry-relevant skills for employment. With the enhanced three-year structure, we hope that more students can continue on to a third year and attain a Higher Nitec, instead of leaving after the two-year Nitec certification. This gives them a stronger foundation to build on for further education and skills upgrading over their careers.

ITE will do its utmost to help its students persevere in their learning journey in the following ways.

First, ITE will continue to proactively and regularly engage its students and identify those who may need more support early based on their class participation, engagement level, performance in assessments and other relevant factors.

Second, once these students are identified, ITE will provide them with targeted support in a timely manner. ITE lecturers will provide them with appropriate learning scaffolds, additional coaching as well as social and other forms of support. For those who would like more time to complete their modules, ITE will support them with a more flexible pathway to take a lower load of modules and take additional semesters to complete.

Third, ITE will beef up the industry exposure elements in its courses and raise their quality. It will provide students with early exposure to industry, jobs and careers to better engage them and strengthen their motivation for learning. The industrial attachments planned for both Year Two and Year Three will help to reinforce and strengthen what they learn in the classroom and help them appreciate the applicability of what they are learning. They will be able to sustain and deepen their learning and also strengthen their work-ready skills.

However, in spite of ITE's best efforts, there will remain some students who will not complete their three-year pathway. ITE will encourage these students to take up the second industry attachment in the third year to deepen their workplace learning. Students can still choose to exit with a Nitec qualification and transcript reflecting modules that they have already completed. ITE will also provide job placement support to help them with their transition to work, as well as customised education and career guidance. The goal is to encourage and support them to return to ITE anytime they choose to do so, to complete the rest of the modules and attain their Higher Nitec qualification, either through the full-time or part-time programmes.

ITE's strong mission of education and social support and strong industry orientation and focus has benefited many cohorts of students, equipping them with work-ready qualifications and skills to take on skilled jobs in the economy. MOE and ITE will continue to support and help ITE students thrive and succeed and fulfil their potential.

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Minister for the reassuring reply.

The enhanced pathway, or rather the structure goes a long way into destigmatising ITEs. Having taught students who went to the Polytechnics, I truly believe that ITEs is not an acronym for "It's the end", but "It's towards excellence". So, with that, given the increased accessibility to the Higher Nitec, are there plans to increase the places for the Polytechnic intake? And will there be a transition programme for these students in this batch of ITE students as they further their studies at the Polytechnic?

Sir, I thank the Member for that question. It is very heartening for him to translate the much talked about ITE as "It's the end" to "It's towards excellence". I think we want to certainly work towards ensuring our students get the best technical education through the ITE curriculum.

Sir, the intent of the revised ITE curricular structure is to ensure that the ITE students are better prepared for the skills demanded by the industry and have a stronger foundation for further upgrading subsequently for their future needs. So, beyond this, we will continue to support upgrading for our ITE graduates via different pathways after their Higher Nitec qualification. The diploma programmes offered by the polytechnics is one of the pathways and there will continue to be places that will be set aside for them. And if need be, there will be programmes that will support them in the transition.

There are also other upgrading pathways available to our ITE graduates, such as the Technical Diplomas in the ITE themselves, as well as the Work-Study Diplomas offered by the ITE, which ITE is planning to expand further.

ITE graduates can also choose from across the different pathways and programmes according to their learning styles and career development needs and aspirations at the appropriate point in time and in accordance with the entry requirements of each pathway. So, there are a lot of pathways that our ITE graduates can take up at different points in time in their careers.