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THE last vocational training centre here will be renamed and revamped next year to prepare more students for further studies.
Assumption Vocational Institute will change its name to Assumption Pathway School (APS), and offer an enhanced programme which builds up students' academic skills and character, on top of job skills.
Its campus will also be refurbished, with the $28 million provided by the Ministry of Education.
The school will take a leaf from NorthLight School, which has seen encouraging results since it was set up last year to replace the Geylang Vocational Institute.
Instead of admitting those who fail the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) thrice, it will follow NorthLight's lead in taking in those who fail once or more. It will still admit those who leave secondary school prematurely.
And like NorthLight, it will offer a three to four-year course focusing on the academic and vocational, and have class sizes of 20, instead of the usual 30 to 40.
Students at these schools want to go on to post-secondary education and schools have to prepare them as well as possible, said Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam during a visit to the AVI on Tuesday.
He said NorthLight has already seen good results: 'Many of their students, even in English and maths, are turning out to be more proficient and confident than they originally were, because of a different way of teaching and a different environment.'
At NorthLight, students are taught through hands-on activities for instance. NorthLight and APS will take in a total of 1,800 to 1,900 students eventually - enough to meet demand, said Mr Tharman.
As an indication, 800 failed PSLE the first time last year, 300 did so a second time while it was the third time for another 30.
He said the aim was for at least eight in 10 to go on to post-secondary education. The rest would still have skills certificates from the Insitute of Technical Education (ITE).
Mr Tharman said while APS will be different in offering a homestay programme, where students stay in hostel for two weeks a year to learn independence and team work. They will also go for work attachments from the first year.
APS, which has 270 students now, will have room for 700 students by 2011.
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