MR KENNETH Neo, 36, owns a company with an annual turnover of $50 million, zips around in a Mercedes-Benz and lives in a house in Seletar Hills with his wife and six-year-old daughter.

He is where he is today, he says, because of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), or rather, its predecessor.

Not that he saw it that way initially. Getting an E8 for his O-level English in 1988 meant that he had 'no place to go to', except the Singapore Technical Institute (STI), the equivalent of ITE then.

Like many of his peers who ended up there, the former Thomson Secondary student spoke no English at home.

As the youngest of six children of chicken farmers, he grew up on a farm in Yio Chu Kang, and attended a Chinese-medium primary school.

He felt that his family and friends looked down on him for going to STI. 'I was so demoralised when I put on the uniform. I felt everybody was looking at me,' he recalls.

But, at the STI Circuit Road campus, he took stock of his life.

During the first week, his form teacher told the class not to give up and to aim to go to polytechnic. The message stuck, and the youth decided to drop his playfulness and get serious.

From hardly ever studying for his O levels, he began working hard, even taking English classes at night. 'My relatives thought I was a totally different person.'

His hard work paid off when he became one of the top students in his mechanical and electrical engineering drafting and design course. He won a place at Singapore Polytechnic.

He then set his sights on a degree even as he was studying for his diploma. After graduating from poly, he scrimped and saved most of what he earned as a draughtsman in the construction industry.

Each month, he would spend only about $300 of his $4,000 salary, surviving on packed lunches prepared by his mother.

He cobbled together $40,000 after 11/2 years, and headed for Loughborough University in Britain to study manufacturing engineering and management.

When he returned in 1998, he shunned multinational corporations to work as a design engineer for a small Singapore firm.

'I didn't want to go to an MNC as I didn't think I would have as many opportunities to go into other areas. Engineering means engineering.'

In 2000, he got his break when his boss decided to revamp the company and move away from designing automation machines.

Seizing the opportunity, Mr Neo decided to strike out on his own and take over that part of his ex-boss' business. He and a partner started with $100,000 and a staff of five.

The going was tough in the beginning, but he soon won clients over with his good grasp of every aspect of manufacturing - something he says he owes to his hands-on training.

Today, his company, Advance Tech Automation, has expanded to China and boasts a workforce of 400 here and 120 in China.

He says he would rather hire ITE than polytechnic graduates as the former are not afraid of 'dirty work' whereas the latter 'expect to wear long sleeves and drive a car'.

About 30 per cent of his staff here are ITE graduates.

He says: 'When you go to the ITE, you are considered to have fallen down and you really feel the pain.

'But if my path had been smooth, I don't think I'd be where I am today.'

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