By Amelia Tan

AS THE popularity of traditional engineering courses wanes, Singapore polytechnics are rolling out programmes this year in newly popular fields such as clean energy and aeronautical engineering.

Polytechnic lecturers said interest in these disciplines is booming, in part because of the glamour of the jobs but largely because the clean energy and aerospace industries are flowering amid a bonanza of investment.

About 10,000 jobs will be created when the $60 million Seletar Aerospace Park is completed in 2018.

With heavy government investments, the clean energy industry is expected to bring Singapore $1.7 billion a year in gross domestic product and create 7,000 jobs by 2015.

'Students can find jobs at the many international companies which will be based here. They have opportunities to work with world-class technology and also travel overseas,' said Mr Ho Hooi Min, senior director of Nanyang Polytechnic's (NYP) school of engineering.

The courses are drawing some of the top engineering students at the expense of programmes like electrical and mechanical engineering.

Applications to those courses have been falling in Singapore and around the world since the 1980s, said Dr Dave Chong, director of Singapore Polytechnic's school of electrical and electronics engineering.

The change represents a fundamental shift in the attitudes of students, said Mr Wong Cho Loo, who manages Temasek Polytechnic's microelectronics and clean energy courses.

'Traditional engineering jobs are less glamorous than those in the clean energy sector, which is talked about so much now, and aerospace engineering because it deals with flying.'

With all five polytechnics offering courses in clean energy and aerospace engineering, each one is hoping to attract the best students by creating niche programmes.

Students enrolled in NYP's diploma in aeronautical and aerospace technology will be able to intern at engine-maker Rolls-Royce's future plant in Singapore and factories in Germany and Britain.

Republic Polytechnic is also in talks with companies to provide internships for students enrolled in the diploma in aerospace engineering quality systems.

Temasek Polytechnic houses the only clean energy centre located in an education institution. There, students can work with companies on renewable energy technologies such as fuel cells, hydropower and biofuels.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic clean energy management diploma students will spend a semester in Germany, where they will work with other international students to design and build a solar car.

Their counterparts at Singapore Polytechnic can pursue a renewable energy engineering degree programme in Australia.

These opportunities are catching the eye of future students.

Muhammad Noor Iman Abdul Salam, a Secondary 3 student, attended a three-hour workshop in aerospace technology at NYP in October last year.

He said: 'I want to study aerospace engineering at NYP. It is exciting to be able to work with planes and I think I will be able to earn a good salary. I will study hard to make sure I can get in.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on January 19, 2009.