Debated in Parliament on 3 Mar 2021.
Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Education what efforts are being undertaken to ensure a strong availability of industrial attachments and internships for students of Institutes of Higher Learning in future-ready industrial sectors including sectors in green tech, urban farming and artificial intelligence.
Mr Speaker, our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) place strong focus on industrial attachments and internships for their students, to complement their learning in the classroom. This is the case across all sectors and courses, including in the specialised fields of green technology, urban farming and artificial intelligence.
In total, there were 25,000 internship opportunities in Academic Year 2019/2020 for students in courses related to infocomm technologies, artificial intelligence, environmental studies and environmental engineering, urban greenery, clean energy and green building management and so on; more than enough to meet the student demand. The IHLs work closely with industry partners to design and facilitate such opportunities, which are often credit-bearing, to ensure quality learning for their students. We continue to benefit from strong interest by organisations that have partnered the IHLs to host student interns. Examples include Edible Garden City, SolarGy, Shopee, Singtel and IBM.
Besides internships, the IHLs also work with industry partners to organise projects to expose students to real-world work in these areas, including: industry talks, learning journeys and company visits. For example, National University of Singapore organises relevant industry talks and facilitates case competitions on sustainability topics by industry partners like Schneider Electric, Ecolab and Tata Consultancy to provide students with insights on career prospects and industry trends. Ngee Ann Polytechnic organises the Future City Programme with industry partners to provide hands-on learning opportunities focusing on future technologies, such as with Moovita, a high-tech start-up specialised in providing software solutions for driverless vehicles. In the process, students benefit from the experiential learning and also acquire a better sense of what the industry entails.
Let me assure Members that our IHLs will continue to partner stakeholders to ensure a strong array of such opportunities to benefit students across all sectors, including in other in-demand areas such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare and so on.
PAPERCUTS