Institute of Technical Education

Institute of Technical Education
Headquarters of the Institute of Technical Education at Ang Mo Kio, Singapore.
Location
Singapore
Information
Type	Vocational education and training
Established	1992
Director	Bruce Poh (Director & Chief Executive Officer)
Website	http://www.ite.edu.sg

The Institute of Technical Education (Abbreviation: ITE; Chinese: 工艺教育学院; Malay: Institusi Pendidikan Teknikal) is a public vocational education institution in Singapore that provides pre-employment training to secondary school leavers and continuing education and training to working adults. ITE offers apprenticeships for the skilled trades and diplomas in vocational education for skilled technicians and workers in support roles in professions such as engineering, accountancy, business administration, nursing, medicine, architecture, and law. Established by Ministry of Education, it was formerly known as Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB). ITE has three colleges that offer the National ITE Certificate (NITEC), Higher NITEC, Master NITEC and diploma programmes.

During the 1960s and 1970s, vocational training was managed by two separate statutory boards, the Adult Education Board (AEB) and the Industrial Training Board (ITB). They merged in 1979 to become the VITB. The VITB was formed to promote and develop vocational training.

The ITE was established as a post-secondary institution to improve the employability of vocational trainees and to restructure the VITB's programmes. The government decided that every student in Singapore had to have at least 10 years of general education, with technically inclined students filtered to the Normal (Technical) stream in secondary schools as preparation. These students would then attend the ITE after they finished secondary school education.

Annually, ITE takes in 25% of an annual school cohort, or an intake of about 13,000 students per year, with an annual enrollment of about 25,000. Full-time students are typically secondary school graduates with the requisite GCE 'N' or 'O' level qualifications.

To refine technical education in Singapore, the "One ITE System, Three Colleges" Model of Education and Governance was introduced in 2005 to merge the 10 ITE's into 3 regional colleges. ITE College West (Dover Campus), ITE Headquarters (Balestier Campus), ITE College West (Bukit Batok Campus) and ITE College West (Clementi Campus) were merged into ITE College West while ITE College Central (Bishan Campus), ITE College Central (Balestier Campus), ITE College Central (MacPherson Campus), ITE College Central (Yishun Campus) and ITE College Central (Tampines Campus) were merged into ITE College Central.

ITE has won a number of local awards as well as international awards. In 2005, it became the first educational institution to be awarded the Singapore Quality Award by Spring Singapore. This award is awarded to world-class organisations that demonstrate the highest standards of business excellence. ITE has also won the Public Service Distinguished Award, awarded by the Prime Minister's office in 2010, as well as the Singapore Innovation Class, awarded by Spring Singapore in 2011.