April 2016 ilink A NEWSLETTER OF THE ITE INDUSTRY-BASED TRAINING DIVISION ITE ENHANCED INTERNSHIP LAUNCHED! By Alvin Chiang Inside this issue: Foreword by our Divisional Director UP Your Company Profile with Our Traineeship Publicity Brochure Industry Partnership Forum 2015 WorldSkills Singapore 2016 Sponsorship Opportunities ITE and SSMC Sign MOU 2 2 3 4 5 Mass signing ceremony for Enhanced Internship participation witnessed by Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Mr Ong Ye Kung A n important milestone was achieved on 18 Nov 2015 in ITE's strategic plan of creating career-based technical education beyond the classroom. 111 companies pledged their support for the ITE Enhanced Internship Programme by signing the Internship Participation Agreement. Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Mr Ong Ye Kung was present to affirm the significance of this signing ceremony held at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport. The ITE Enhanced Internship Programme is one of the initiatives under the national SkillsFuture movement. Students will receive training based on a prescribed list of tasks agreed upon by ITE and the internship company. The roles and responsibilities of ITE and these companies will also be clearly defined so as to ensure that students undergo meaningful work-based training. ITE Steps Out to Do Good 2Cents Worth Same Same but Different Best Practice Beyond Borders 5 6 7 Mr Ong highlighted the importance of internships for students to cultivate their passion in vocations they are interested in. To date, over 1,000 companies have come on board the Enhanced Internship programme. 60 out of 101 ITE courses will be offering the Enhanced Internship programme in 2016. By 2020, ITE aims to have the Enhanced Internship Programme in all its courses. Mr Ong Ye Kung interacts with company representatives at the signing ceremony You are welcome to come onboard our Enhanced Internship programme. Please contact Noel Tay (noel_c_h_tay@ite.edu.sg) or Alvin Chiang (chiang_yan_keat@ite.edu.sg) for more information.
Page 2 ilink FROM OUR DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR Dear Industry Partners, Mr Ting Kok Guan Divisional Director Industry-based Training Division I hope 2016 has been fulfilling for you so far. It certainly has been so for me and my team at ITE. 2015 ended on a high note for ITE when more than 110 companies came together to sign the Internship Participation Agreement under the new Enhanced Internship programme. The number of companies joining in to provide meaningful and structured internship to our students is growing every day. Find out more in this issue of ilink on how your company can contribute to the skills mastery and skills deepening journey of our workforce. Our 2015 Industry Partnership Forum was once again a resounding success. We shared with participating companies an exciting suite of ITE s manpower development schemes that complemented their human capital management objectives. We were thrilled by the prospective collaborations with companies who have indicated their interests. It will be an exhilarating year ahead with WorldSkills Singapore to be held in July 2016. If you desire to play a momentous role in putting a talented Singaporean youth on the world stage to compete with other titans of technical skills, put in your sponsorship today. Read on to find out how you can do so. Global growth is forecast to be slow but as the saying goes, Tough times don t last, tough people do. A surefire way to toughen one up is to continuously strive to ascent the skills and knowledge ladder. I look forward to more collaborations with you in 2016 as we endeavor to build up the resilience of our workforce. UP Your Company Profile With Our Traineeship Publicity Brochure Over 20,000 copies distributed to graduating secondary school students Feature your company today! Contact: Ms Sharon Lam, Head, Traineeship Every GCE N Level student gets a copy Traineeship applicants doubled since distribution 6590 2440 Sharon_T_H_Lam@ite.edu.sg
April 2016 INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP FORUM 2015 They came. They saw. We collaborated. By Chung Woon Heng T he 2015 ITE Industry Partnership Forum was a success in reaching out to companies and enabling new industry partners to attain valuable insights to ITE s capabilities, catalyzing meaningful collaborations. Held on 20 Oct 2015 at ITE College East and attended largely by senior management from 50 companies, the participants learnt of avenues in ITE to leverage on for manpower development through schemes like Enhanced Internship and Traineeship. The Forum also provided updates on SkillsFuture initiatives and promoted skills mastery and lifelong learning in the workforce through continuing education. A showcase of ITE s technological capabilities sparked intense interest among the companies. After viewing display booths on applied innovations and industry projects, many developed by ITE in partnership with companies, some 20 companies registered their immediate interest in collaborating with ITE in various innovation projects. Novel ideas and constructive feedback were also crystallized over round table discussions hosted by ITE management staff. ITE is a lot more than just an education institution. If you want to know how ITE can help boost your business productivity, do not miss the next Industry Partnership Forum in Sep 2016. More details will be available soon. Page 3 Mr Ting Kok Guan, Divisional Director, Industry -based Training, giving updates on manpower development schemes Mr Aw York Bin, Deputy CEO (Industry), in his opening address: This forum is an excellent opportunity to enhance our connectivity and to explore the various avenues of collaboration. It is also an effective feedback channel on ITE policies and programmes. Sponsorships Showcase of ITE innovation projects Demonstration of industrial machine developed by ITE to participants Mr Aw Kim Geok, Divisional Director, Continuing Education & Training, sharing with industry partners on upgrading options for employees Lively discussions at roundtable chaired by ITE management.
Page 4 ilink Sponsorship opportunities Ever yearned to be part of the Olympics? Now you can! The 12 th biennial WorldSkills Singapore (WSS) 2016 to be held from 7 9 July is the arena where talented Singaporean youths pit their technical skills with one another. WSS aims to raise the standard of excellence in technical skills and generate public awareness and interest in technical education. Outstanding performers in the WSS will go on to represent Singapore to compete at the Youth Olympics of Skills - the prestigious WorldSkills Competition to be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in October 2017. Sponsor WSS 2016 today and be part of the journey to nurture our future world Olympians in technical skills! Category Quantum Principal Sponsor $100,000 Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor Supporter $25,000 $15,000 $2,000 Sponsors can enjoy tax-deduction for cash sponsorships Depending on the category of sponsorship, sponsors will enjoy an attractive suite of benefits. Visit www.worldskills.sg for more details. You can also contact the following ITE staff for more information regarding sponsorship for WSS 2016: Mr Lee Tek Siong Tel: 65902432 email: Lee_Tek_Siong@ite.edu.sg Ms Jane Ho Tel: 65902587 email: Jane_X_W_Ho@ite.edu.sg
April 2016 ITE AND SSMC SIGN MOU I TE and Systems on Silicon Management Company Pte Ltd (SSMC) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in the field of Microelectronics Manufacturing Process and Training on 8 Jan 2016. The MOU was signed by Mr Bruce Poh, Director & CEO ITE and Mr Jagadish C.V., CEO SSMC. This MOU will facilitate the collaboration between both parties in sharing of best practices and expertise in Microelectronics Manufacturing Processes and the pedagogy development of trainers. By Yeo Yin Yin Page 5 SSMC values talent development and seeks to continually upgrade its training capabilities. They first participated in ITE s Approved Training Centre (ATC) scheme to conduct the ITE Skills Certificate (ISC) in Wafer Fabrication course in 2001 and were recently awarded the ATC status for Nitec in Technology Electronics (Microelectronics). SSMC will also partake in the ITE Enhanced Internship to provide structured learning for students to apply their learning in a real work environment. SSMC has chosen to partner with ITE so that we can hand-in-hand build a self-sustainable and highly-skilled supply of local technicians to meet the future demands of the Semiconductor Industry." Mr Jagadish C.V., CEO SSMC. Speech at the MOU signing ceremony 8 Jan 2016 The strong support and commitment from SSMC is encouraging and inspires ITE students and graduates to pursue meaningful and rewarding careers in the electronics industry. ITE STEPS OUT TO DO GOOD By Antonio Tan The Health Promotion Board (HPB) National Steps Challenge aims to promote healthy living by increasing physical activity. The Challenge offers the opportunity to turn each step taken into cash donations for the chosen beneficiary. ITE staff and students chalked up an impressive 576 million steps in 2015 and received $10,000 from HPB. All proceeds from this initiative were donated to the ITE Endowment Fund to help the needy students. A fine display of an ITE core value ITE CARE!
Page 6 ilink 2Cents Wor th 2Cents Worth is a regular segment in ilink where our fellow colleagues and industry partners will pen their commentary on workplace training-related.. issues. If you would like to share or contribute, submit your article (no longer than 600 words) to ibt@ite.edu.sg. The Editor reserves the right to edit and publish appropriate... submissions. Noel Tay has 8 years of experience in Training and Development. As one of the trainers for the Structured OJT Workshops, he constantly receives compliments and positive feedback for his insightful training sessions. SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT By Noel Tay D o you find yourself doing the same things but expecting different results? In most organisations, training and development for its employees is not a novel concept. Companies are well aware of the importance of training its people, both for the short term benefits of increasing efficiency and productivity, and long term gains in quality and engagement. However, when training outcomes are not achieving their intended purposes, Training Managers are usually faced with two options: (A) Do more of the same thing (such as increasing the frequency of the training programmes, reviewing existing programmes etc), (B) Do different things (implement new programmes and initiatives). Are these the only two choices? If this is your train of thought, then you will have committed a fallacy of thinking, known as false dilemma. This is a line of thinking where either: A or B must be true; or if A is false, then B must be true, and vice versa. In actual fact both A and B could be false and be the culprits of below par performance in your organisation. If your training programmes are not achieving its intended outcomes, perhaps there is a third option -> (C) Do the same things differently. In repeating the same process of analysing training needs, organisations are undoubtedly competent in establishing the What aspect What kind of training do the employees need to undergo? So focused is the organisation on the What that the How is often neglected. In reality, the key to the success of a training programme lies in the How - How should the training programme be implemented? By examining the How, Training Managers are exploring the third option (C) Do the same things differently. The key questions to ask when deciding on the implementation plan are: Who will be impacted by this programme? What will be the employees concerns? How can we get the employees buy-in to the programme? Why would the programme be a failure? How would the modality of a successful programme look like? If a thorough analysis with the relevant stakeholders is conducted in the implementation or review stage of a training programme, success may not be guaranteed, but at least you are not doing the same thing and still expecting different results!
April 2016 Page 7 BEST PRACTICE BEYOND BORDERS By Jeffrey Tan Structured training is certainly a key ingredient in helping to ensure employees carry out their tasks competently according to company requirements. ITE s Certified-On-the-Job Training Centre (COJTC) system provides a structured framework for companies to institutionalise structured training for their employees. Many companies adopting the COJTC system are able to enhance the quality of training they conduct for their employees at the workplace. Eaton Industries Pte Ltd (Hydraulics Group) Singapore is a COJTC. PT Fluid Sciences Batam, the Indonesian subsidiary of Eaton Industries Pte Ltd (Aerospace Group), regards training as the competitive edge towards operational efficiency and believes in the merits of the COJTC system. They applied to become an International COJTC with ITE in the last quarter of 2015. A site audit was conducted by ITE and PT Fluid Sciences Batam has been approved as an International COJTC since 1 Dec 2015. We congratulate PT Fluid Sciences Batam on this achievement. Yes! Best practice can indeed be applied beyond borders for the COJTC scheme. ITE auditors (left) with PT Fluid Sciences Pte Ltd key personnel Plant visit In-depth discussions on the training and the COJTC system Presentations by ITE and PT Fluid Sciences Pte Ltd D0 you know that ITE has an Endowment Fund to assist financially needy students? With a government matching of up to 150% for every dollar donated, any amount raised will go a longer way! Find out how you can help deserving ITE students by scanning the QR code on the right now!
ilink For course details, please refer to http://www.ite.edu.sg/wps/portal/pde. Please email CNT@ite.edu.sg to arrange for group classes. Institute of Technical Education Industry-Based Training Division 2 Ang Mo Kio Drive Singapore 567720 Tel: 65902432 Fax: 65902452 Email: ibt@ite.edu.sg