FROM April last year to March this year, the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) hosted 616 visitors from countries ranging from Rwanda to China.

The post-secondary institution can expect more international visitors after receiving the prestigious IBM Innovations In Transforming Government Award from Harvard University on Monday. It beat four finalists shortlisted from more than 100 applicants from 30 countries to win the award.

Winners were chosen based on criteria such as the impact of the programme and how replicable it is. As the Harvard citation noted, the ITE has gone from being "an institution of last resort for low-achieving students" to being internationally recognised. Its results speak for themselves: The ITE doubled its full-time student numbers from about 12,000 in 1995 to almost 25,000 last year.

Its graduation rate rose from 60 to 80 per cent during the same period. Last year, almost 96 per cent of its graduates received job offers within half a year. About one in four ITE graduates goes on to obtain a diploma.

In 2005, the ITE also became the first educational institution here to win the Singapore Quality Award, a leading business award, for its overall excellence.

The same year, it won praise from the World Bank. Dubbed the "jewel in Singapore's education system" by Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the ITE has come a long way since it rose from the ashes of the former Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB) 15 years ago.

It was formed after a shake-up of the primary and secondary school systems, to get students to have at least 10 years of general education. Instead of taking in primary and secondary school leavers, the ITE was re-positioned as a post-secondary institution for the least academically able 25 per cent in each cohort.

There were high hopes the ITE could shed the negative image of vocational institute students as dropouts and low achievers.

Speaking in 1992, then ITE director and chief executive officer Law Song Seng declared: "We want parents and school-leavers to realise we have a new image and direction."

Dr Law, an engineer by training who retired as ITE director and CEO in February this year, mapped out ITE's transformation in five-year plans.

Its first five-year plan saw the ITE build 10 modern campuses and upgrade its courses and the qualifications of its lecturers. In 1992, only 4.8 per cent of its lecturers had at least a degree.

Fifteen years on, the figure has risen to about 45 per cent. In its latest One ITE System, Three Colleges model, it plans to have three regional campuses by 2011.

The first to be ready, ITE College East in Simei, has earned rave reviews from visitors since it opened two years ago. In its second five-year plan, the ITE focused on improving curriculum and teaching.

On top of rolling out a compulsory module which teaches life skills such as communication and team work, the ITE also introduced online learning in about 20 per cent of its lessons. The ITE may have greatly improved but this matters little if it is not communicated to the public.

To that end, it embarked on branding campaigns from 1998, with taglines such as "ITE Makes Things Happen" or "Thinking Hands Create Success" in posters and advertisements.

It also reached out to about 50,000 students, teachers and parents through open houses and road shows. In its latest five-year plan, it aims to become a global leader in technical education.

It has already formed alliances with institutions in Canada, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and South Korea. Next year, it is introducing the ITE Technical Engineer Diploma in Machine Technology, in partnership with the German Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Baden-Wurttemberg. Graduates from the two-year course will receive a German diploma and be recognised for entry into German universities such as the University of Esslingen, which offers degrees in English.

The ITE is also offering consultancy services to countries in the Middle East and Africa, and aims to send 20 per cent of its students overseas. At home, it has helped thousands of students demoralised by poor results in their earlier school career to further their studies, and hopes more will do so.

Former EM3 pupil Tan Kai Soon, 25, credits his ITE teachers for motivating him in his studies.

Today, he is an engineering graduate from Nanyang Technological University. Now, about 80 per cent of Normal (Technical) students join the ITE after graduation. But that is not enough. Having achieved recognition abroad, the ITE has to work on one of its key goals: to reach out to the 1,000 Normal (Technical) students who miss out on an ITE education each year.