| Rising
to great heights of excellence |
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| With visionary
leadership, ITE will forge on beyond the SQA. |
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The Institute
of Technical Education (ITE) reached the pinnacle
of business excellence when it won the prestigious
Singapore Quality Award (SQA) recently. In fact,
ITE is the first educational institution to win
the SQA.
ITE’s CEO, Dr Law Song Seng, said: “Winning the
award is a milestone for any organisation. For ITE,
it means the national recognition of our transformation
into a world-class, post-secondary education institution
focusing on vocational technical education and skills.”
Impressed with ITE’s trail-blazing transformation
and student-centric focus, Professor Cheong Hee
Kiat, Deputy Chairman of the SQA Governing Council,
said: “ITE’s unique full-time programmes stem from
its education philosophy of ‘Hands-on, Minds-on,
Hearts-on’, which nurtures all-rounded students.
This philosophy has helped ITE to be recognised
both locally and internationally for the quality of its
programmes, facilities, learning resources, graduates
and organisational practices,” he added.
“The organisation has produced confident
and well-equipped graduates to meet the needs
of the modern economy.”
The SQA win attests to the commitment and
enthusiasm of its leadership in steering ITE to
achieve its mission and goals, and in inculcating
an ITE Care culture, where student care is crucial.
Moreover, ITE’s dynamic and robust systems,
processes and educational outcomes are
benchmarked against similar institutions locally
and internationally.
Said Ms Sabrina Loi, Divisional Director/Corporate
Affairs: “What was most gratifying about the SQA
journey was the strong ownership of the goal of
organisational excellence by all levels of staff.
“The visionary leadership and our three
strategic roadmaps — ITE 2000 Plan, ITE
Breakthrough and ITE Advantage — have
provided a focused and unified purpose to drive
change and breakthrough improvements in three
waves of transformation over the last decade.”
Dr Derek Yeo, Course Manager/Life Sciences, said:
“A lot of effort is put into motivating students
to instil in them self-confidence and a ‘dare-to-dream-and-do’
mindset. It is our way of student care, as we believe
in living the ITE Care values.”
As a mission-driven, post-secondary
educational institution, ITE has also created many
opportunities for school leavers and working
adults who need an ITE education to succeed in
life and society.
In its drive to better serve and add value to its
students and stakeholders, ITE adopted the SQA framework
to benchmark itself against the “best-of- the-best”
of world-class organisations.
Winning the SQA was one of the high points of
ITE’s organisational excellence journey. The SQA,
noted Dr Law, would thrust ITE into the global
arena and onto the next level of organisational
excellence. He added: “Our next step and
aspiration is for ITE to be a global leader in
technical education.”
To stay relevant and responsive, ITE plans
to inject greater global perspective into its
programmes. It also wants to build on its unique
brand by creating new competitive advantages
for its students, staff and other stakeholders. |
