02 July 2020
Two second-year Institute of Technical Education students have emerged winners in the Social Innovation Relay 2020, a global social innovation competition that challenges youths to develop innovative business concepts that address social needs.
The ITE contestants who represented Singapore were Mr Arthur Chong, 19, and Mr Ernest Antonio Ching, 18. They had earlier qualified by beating nine other teams from schools such as Raffles Institution and Dunman High School in the final national leg of the competition late last month.
The ITE students came up with the idea of a social enterprise to train and place youth with autism in jobs that matched their skills. Mentors would be assigned to coach the youth on handling work situations for up to a year. The pair also developed a prototype of a chat support application.
Now that the competition is over, the they might look into working with Inclus on the use of the app.
The students gave credit to their mentors, ITE lecturer Ismadi Suhadi and cyber security risk manager Adeline Chan, for guidance on areas for improvement. Ms Chan is from the non-profit organisation Junior Achievement Singapore, which organises the local competition.