Singapore Polytechnic nurtures creative and entrepreneurial students with SG$1m endowed funding

Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is poised to continue developing creative and entrepreneurial students with an injection of SG$100,000 from renowned advertiser Ian Batey and with a matching grant from the Ministry of Education. This latest donation takes the endowed funding for the Batey programmes for SP students to S$1 million.

Since 2012, the fund has provided scholarships and programmes such as ‘The Batey Challenge’ and 'The Batey Hackathon’ to 114 students, according to a statement from the school.

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"I hope that through The Batey Hackathon and The Batey Challenge programmes, we can inspire SP students to dream more, to stretch their imagination, to explore new avenues that can contribute to Singapore's growing success as a creative lighthouse on the world stage,” said Batey.

From 2023 onwards, Singapore Polytechnic expects 50 students a year to benefit from both Batey programmes which are also available to all its students from various disciplines to collaborate on business ideas or develop prototypes that show promising market potential.

Additionally, students will be mentored by the school’s SP-Entrepreneurs-in-Residence in the final year of the programme.

“Batey's generous gift to Singapore Polytechnic opens up a world of opportunities in enabling the transformative journeys for our SP students,” said Tan Yen Yen, senior director, business and the creatives at SP.

“The Batey Hackathon and The Batey Challenge programmes will provide seed funding and invaluable mentorships, empowering our talented individuals to transform their ideas into impactful ventures,” she further elaborated.

Winners of The Batey Challenge 2022 include indie video game development studio Cloud of Pinky along with 3D-printed geometric connector start-up Stick’em that aims to make education affordable and accessible for disadvantaged children in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Polytechnics in Singapore have been working to develop their students creatively in the last few years. Last year, Mediacorp teamed up with Nanyang Polytechnic to work on establishing a new centre for omnichannel marketing to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Touted to provide training to SMEs and to support them in planning, creating, and driving omnichannel marketing campaigns, the centre will engage Nanyang Polytechnic students and tap on their creative talents, as well as the expertise of Mediacorp. 

In light of this, the collaboration aims to strengthen the development and training of both learners and academic staff to be more well-equipped to navigate the global media and entertainment industry at the same time. 

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