Description: This article is about a teaching experience story of a teacher from ITE. It also describes how and why ITE was found, and how it develops.
I have a passion for teaching, I still have it and believe you have too.
I am a teacher,a part-time trainer with ITE. I conducted train-the-trainer courses for industry workers who want to pick up or aspire to become trainers.
In their companies or industry, they have company training schemes being implemented by many companies. Many participants are employees of companies and they eventually come forward to pick up these train-the-trainer courses, and I am one of the pattern trainer, so after my retirement, I came back into teaching.
I have been doing that for many years,and it was an interesting journey from teaching to do a manager role. All the time I was involved in doing things,which benefit students and the training system.
I do a lot of organization of activities in connection with my work. And one of issues I can recall is that when ITE was formulated in 1992, one of the events that we have was the big walk together with a fund fair for students, so we did that again, an extinct time, we use their location to raise funds.
We can recall that we raised about over three hundred thousands, and eventually it was donated to an NGO and then NGO was really really really good, very pleased with it.
It was a successful event that we have. And Dr. Tang who was the chairman of ITE was so happy that he declared the following day as a holiday for all training staff and students, and I was very pleased with it
There was also my involvement through my years as divisional director,it was my involvement with the skills competition,and I recorded it during the time when ITE was formed.
The case of honor for that dinner function with the Prime Minister was Dr. Goh Chok Tong,and who made the announcement that Singapore with the formation of ITE, that Singapore should take part in the international youth olympics course, now it’s called work skills competition. So that signal a big challenge to ITE as a lead organization to organize a competition with in Singapore and to select now capable competitors in vocational skills to take part in the world skills competition.
This competition is competed at that time was about 30 / countries worldwide including Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and France, US and so on and these countries out there are industrialized countries. And in the competitors that was very strong for all this international competition.
I happen to be appointed as a team leader, so my job as a team leader was to look after the welfare of the competitors before they leave. To prepare them adequately not so much in the skills, because the skills who were being undertaken by their own mentors, and trainers in the skills, but to prepare them psychologically case, so that they would be able to face the stiff competition and have the mental frame of mind to compete in the kind of situation.
When they were there, we had to see to the welfare of no studio to their lodging, their food, their well-being ,the health of it every day. They hope you are fit enough to compete, because the competition spent over three or four days. And so they had to stay fit every day to be able to last for throughout the competition, that was very satisfying.
I think public perceptions have been changing since the formation of ITE. ITE was formed in 1992, and after the announcement I think government together with ITE put in a lot of effort and resources to transform ITE into what it is today.
Before we used to have and used to use primary school buildings, we used to have Nissan head at pass brand so that the costs in some problems with the image,public image, but with the information ITE, we had the opportunity of building up new infrastructures.
And the first one was being the new headquarters, at over now and then,subsequently followed by the development of a mega campus at CMA,a few years later, we had another brand new one at CHA to come, which is the ITE college with us ,and then a couple of years ago, the brand new ITE headquarters at an ITE college central at MO KIO with.
With this new headquarters plus these three mega campuses together, one can see that the facilities are there, they are new, brand new and modern as that shows that a lot of resources have been put in.
If you look at ITE any competitor poly, they are comparable, if not better than, what the polytechnics providing, so people should have no problem choosing ITE to pick up technical skills and to develop from there.
I started off as a trainee technical teacher and then I retired in December 2003. That seemed to be a lot of years before I retired, I was appointed as the divisional director.
I believe it was in nineteen eighty and I retie in 2003,therefore[So和therefore，here for more than 13 years or so I was a divisional director in charge of institutional training and subsequently in charge of student and alumni services as a teacher.