ITE students to be offered aerospace internships with 16 companies

SINGAPORE — Students from the Institutes of Technical Education (ITE) will be offered enhanced internships in aerospace-related jobs after the school signed an agreement with 16 aerospace companies on Thursday evening (Feb 18), at the JTC annual Aerospace Networking Night.

About 100 internship positions will be available each year, in areas such as avionics systems maintenance and aerospace component machining.

Rolls-Royce has committed to offering 16 internships annually and the enhanced internship will see students undergoing a more structured programme as technicians.

Rolls-Royce Singapore director Bicky Bhangu said: “Students come and see the assembly and the test of gas turbine engines that we do, and the curriculum is designed specifically that they can apply to assembly and test. This is more linked and bridges the gap between education and the workplace.”

“The difference that we have here is that we really went through line by line to see what education looks like today and how we can apply that education in real life, in terms of the processes that we do and the systems that we have in assembling of a gas turbine engine, so it is much more streamlined, very much more applicable,” he added.

The event brought together 250 overseas and local representatives from more than 120 leading aerospace companies. It also saw JTC signing agreements with 12 aerospace players to be based in Seletar Aerospace Park. They range from service providers of MRO components to aircraft tooling servicing and aircraft engineering support.

Mr Png Cheong Boon, Chief Executive Officer of JTC said: “JTC thanks all the 12 companies for choosing Seletar Aerospace Park (SAP) to be their new home. This brings the total number of global and home-grown companies at SAP to 62. The growing presence of aerospace companies at SAP underscores the benefits of locating in an integrated environment where companies can reap economies of scale and synergies through the co-location of aerospace and aviation activities. We welcome all of them to the aerospace community at SAP.”

POSITIVE PROSPECTS FOR AEROSPACE INDUSTRY: ONG YE KUNG

Acting Education Minister for Higher Education and Skills Ong Ye Kung witnessed the signings. He said the long-term prospects of the aerospace industry remain positive, with more demand for airplanes globally. More jobs are also expected to be created in the sector.

Mr Ong said “Industry experts estimated that 38,000 airplanes will be needed globally within the next two decades, approximately 40 per cent of which will be delivered to airlines in the Asia-Pacific. This will feed the demand in Singapore. Hence, between now and 2020, more jobs are expected to be created in the sector.”

Mr Ong said internships provide students with real-world training and understanding of the industry. More companies are also expected to join in to offer internships in the near future.

“Our young are interested in the aerospace sector. They choose to learn about it, they build their aspirations around it, and we have good quality institutions to nurture their interest into capabilities. If there are insufficient students who have genuine interest in that activity, and are not self-directed to learn the discipline, they will choose to do something else either immediately after graduation or shortly after graduation after a short stint in the industry they are trained for. It is the problem of ‘leakage’ that many economic agencies and employers are very fearful about,” said Mr Ong.

“As our economy becomes more diversified, and the interests and aspirations of the young become more varied, having a match between externally-driven growth and internally cultivated interests and aspirations becomes a key success factor of any economic strategy. And I believe this secret ingredient is there for the aerospace sector in Singapore,” he added. CHANNEL NEWSASIA