5 ITE campuses to be housed under one roof

SINGAPORE: Five satellite campuses belonging to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), will operate as one unit in Ang Mo Kio from January next year.

Called ITE College Central, it will merge the Balestier, Macpherson, Bishan, Tampines and Yishun campuses.

The ITE headquarters, which is currently at Dover Drive, will also relocate there.

The Ang Mo Kio Drive campus, which cost about S$380 million to build, is the third and final mega campus — following ITE College East which opened in 2005, and ITE College West which opened in 2010.

Roughly the size of 10 football fields, it is also ITE’s biggest campus to date, and will cater to 10,400 students.

The campus houses an aerospace hangar with five aircraft.

These include a decommissioned Boeing 737 — which students can use to learn about servicing and maintaining mechanical systems on a commercial plane.

There will also be laboratories for students to design and test gaming technologies, a 3D immersion theatre, a soundstage, as well as commercial outlets.

New courses such as floristry, fashion apparel production and design, and film—making will also be offered at the school from next year.

Director and CEO of ITE ,Bruce Poh, told reporters that the frequency of bus services in the area has already been ramped up in anticipation of the move.

ITE is also in discussions with the Land Transport Authority as well as community leaders on the possibility of having dedicated bus services from some of the nearby MRT stations.

The current premises of the five ITE campuses will be returned to the government.

— CNA/ck