ITE to offer subsidised courses on flying drones
Drone enthusiasts can soon take up courses at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), the first and only public education institution here to be allowed to teach drone courses and certify fliers - at subsidised rates.
These classes, which range from seven hours in a day to 28 hours over four days, are open to the public and eligible for SkillsFuture subsidies.
Drone fliers stand to save thousands of dollars if they enrol in the ITE's programme instead of going to the other five certified unmanned aircraft training organisations here, which are run by private training providers.
The ITE course fees are from $67 to $654, after the SkillsFuture subsidies.
ITE's training facilities, which come with an indoor drone simulator with a 180-degree curved projection screen and a fully netted outdoor drone flying area, are seen as unique by drone trainers.
Classes for students and corporate staff will begin next month, making drone flying more mainstream and accessible to the public.
Dr Lim See Yew, senior director of the school of engineering at ITE College Central, said demand for its drone courses is expected to be high.
There were more than 800 drone pilots in Singapore in May 2018, and the numbers have been growing since.
EXPENSIVE
Dr Lim said: "Current course fees for drone training conducted by private companies in Singapore can be expensive. For instance, it may cost up to $4,999 for certain drone courses.
"In addition, drone courses provided by private training organisations are not supported by SkillsFuture subsidies and participants cannot use their SkillsFuture credits to offset the course fees.
"ITE recognised the need to provide the public access to affordable and professional drone licence training."
Unmanned aircraft training organisations are certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, in line with requirements that kicked in at the start of this month.
Among the conditions, all adults flying drones above 1.5kg must go through training and pass an examination to certify that they are qualified to fly the unmanned aerial vehicles safely.
Those who fly drones without the appropriate licences can be jailed for up to two years, fined up to $50,000, or both for the first offence.
There are now six approved training organisations after the ITE was approved on Jan 12.
The others are Garuda Robotics, MIRS Innovate, Avetics Global, Apollo Global Academy and CWT Aerospace Services.
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