The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) was created to provide of career and technical education and a key developer of national skills certification and standards skilling Singapore for the future economy. It is tasked with providing pre-employment training for youths after secondary education, offering continuing education and training for adult learnings and industry-based and work-learn programmes with employers.
According to Thong Chee Chung, Director, School of Electronic & Info-Comm Technology, ITE College West the use of data is so prevalent right now that there is potential for the curriculum to be included in other courses, and their products and services may be operationalised by some industry partners.
“Many aspects of everyday life are going digital. The use of data analytics and the insights that businesses can derive from data yield immeasurable benefits in understanding consumer behaviour and patterns. As we become more digitally advanced, data analytics will become a core skill that is required of the next generation’s workforce,” he continued.
The Institute is collaborating with TIBCO Software to equip ITE students with the data analytics skills that are essential for their careers and necessary for the future economy.
Nick Lim, general manager, APJ, TIBCO added that this collaboration will allow the vendor to offer its technical expertise in hopes of helping address the data skills gap in Singapore.
“We plan to augment ITE students’ capabilities and skillsets through the free use of TIBCO's technology and innovative solutions,” he elaborated.
Consistent with ITE’s initiative to infuse digitalisation as an integral part of its teaching methodology, this relationship will provide ITE students across related courses with hands-on practice using tools, such as TIBCO Spotfire, offered for at no charge through TIBCO’s Academic Alliance initiative.
The program provides educators and students with no-charge or low-cost cutting-edge technology to spark learning and innovation in classrooms around the world. TIBCO will also help facilitate industry relations for staff and students to provide on-the-job experience in data analytics.
“We are witnessing the impact of COVID-19 and the growing importance for all business entities, regardless of size, to leverage digital tools and data analytics. It’s critical to make sense of big data to understand consumer behaviour and preference, and to inform decisions,” said Low Khah Gek, chief executive officer, ITE.
“As a result, the demand for manpower trained in data analytics will also grow. ITE’s collaboration with TIBCO will enable us to equip ITE students and graduates with data analytics skills to meet this emerging demand,” she continued.
TIBCO’s acknowledged that familiarity with data is no longer reserved for a specific group. Under this climate, to compete in the new data economy, everyone, regardless of their function, will need to have some basic skills in data analysis.
