Joint Collaboration to Develop Vocational Training Institutions in India

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) what is the progress of the joint collaboration between our ITEs and their counterparts in India in developing vocational training and institutions with the aim of providing vocational education to 50 million students in India.

The focus of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) is to provide technical and vocational training to Singaporeans.

With growing international awareness of Singapore's reputation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), ITE has been approached by many foreign parties to explore collaborations in their home countries. ITE Education Services (ITEES) was thus established in 2003 to share ITE's expertise in TVET with overseas institutions. ITEES’ establishment allows ITE to maintain its focus on the provision of TVET in Singapore. ITEES employs its own staff and is self-financing. It offers a range of customised consultancy and training services, which are fully funded by its clients.

Currently, ITEES is involved in efforts to help set up vocational skills centres in various Indian states, such as Rajasthan and Assam. These centres are part of the Indian government's commitment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Skill India campaign, which aims to train Indians in different skillsets by 2022. ITEES' role in the development of these centres include advisory on infrastructure development, curriculum development and quality assurance. ITEES also supports in capability building, by training staff in areas such as leadership development, curriculum review and campus design.

The various projects are at different stages of development. For example, the Centre of Excellence for Tourism Training (CETT) in Udaipur was launched in October 2016 and currently offers six courses in the areas of food and beverage, hospitality and retail services. It has over 100 students enrolled to date. ITEES assisted CETT with the development of the course curriculum and trained several CETT staff in leadership and TVET pedagogy.

Over in Guwahati, the North East Skills Centre (NESC) is currently at the planning stage and is expected to be launched by 2019. ITEES has completed training NESC staff in campus design and development, as well as curriculum review and adaptation.