SINGAPORE - More students will be able to pursue diplomas at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), as the institute adds more of such courses. And these ITE diploma graduates are earning a salary that is comparable with polytechnic diploma graduates.

Five new diploma courses will be added in 2025, to the 48 currently.

With more diploma courses, about 15 per cent of ITE graduates can progress to a diploma qualification with the institute in 2025, up from 10 per cent in 2023.

The new diploma programmes are in the fields of community care, paramedicine, clean energy engineering, health and exercise coaching, and human resource management.

Announcing the new diploma courses on Oct 24 at the institute’s work-study diploma (WSDip) graduation ceremony at ITE College Central, Second Minister for Education Maliki Osman said ITE will provide more students with the opportunity to upskill via the work-study route.

More than nine in 10 WSDip trainees who graduated in 2023 are in full-time employment six months after graduation, Dr Maliki added.

“Their median monthly salary is $2,850... comparable with that of full-time polytechnic diploma graduates,” he said, adding that this is a significant jump from the median monthly salary of $2,000 they received at the start of the course.

Second Minister for Education Maliki Osman said that ITE will provide more students with the opportunity to upskill via the work-study route. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY

With the new courses, the institute expects to take in 1,700 diploma students in 2025, up from about 1,400 in 2024.

Students in the WSDip programme, introduced in 2018, work full-time and attend courses at the ITE concurrently. It typically takes 2½ to three years for an ITE graduate to earn a diploma.

Open to mainly ITE graduates, the WSDip programmes partner about 900 companies which employ the students and provide them with mentorship and work experience.

The WSDip programmes in community care integration and management, paramedicine, and human resource management, to be launched in 2025, will take in about 85 students in total.

Another two diplomas in the emerging sectors of clean energy and health to be launched in 2025 will take in 60 students.

The full-time technical engineer diploma in electrical engineering (clean energy) will be offered in partnership with Germany’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, as well as Baden-Wurttemberg, a school for electrical engineering and renewable energy.

The technical diploma in health and exercise coaching, also a full-time programme, will be offered in partnership with Hong Kong’s Vocational Training Council, a professional education and training provider.

Students in these two programmes have opportunities to take part in overseas exchanges with educational institutions in Germany, France, Switzerland and Hong Kong, and go for industrial attachment stints. It takes between two and 2½ years to complete the full-time courses, but students can work part-time outside their school hours.

From an initial offering of four WSDip courses with industry training at 41 companies, there will be 45 courses with more than 900 companies by 2025.

ITE will have a total of eight technical diplomas in 2025. Technical diplomas are full-time courses in which the ITE has tie-ups with overseas institutions.

Mr Dinash Kumar Jayabal, 22, an aspiring pilot, had to make a tough choice when it came to his educational pathway after he graduated from ITE with a Higher Nitec in mechanical engineering in 2020.

Mr Dinash KumarJayabal, 22, received a medal for excelling in the WSDip course in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, and aspires to be a pilot. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY

Although he was offered a place in Singapore Polytechnic, he chose to return to ITE to do the WSDip in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering in March 2021. He did this while concurrently completing his national service in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).

He said one of the deciding factors was that he would get to work in the RSAF while earning his diploma.

He was among 749 WSDip trainees who graduated on Oct 24, and one of 37 course medal recipients for excelling in their courses.

As a flight line crew member with the RSAF, Mr Dinash checks the aircraft components of CH-47 Chinooks at Sembawang Airbase to ensure they are safe to fly.

Said Mr Dinash: “I don’t think any other course will offer this opportunity to communicate with the pilots... I also got to know more about military aviation.”

He plans to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering or economics and data science at Nanyang Technological University.