What Singapore's hospitality colleges actually ask for: IMSC and STEi side by side
Six months of teaching, then a six-month industrial attachment on a Training Work Permit. S$5,800 at STEi, payable only after your Student Pass is approved. What each college asks for, compared.
Most pages about studying hospitality in Singapore are written to be persuasive. Very few tell you the thing you actually need before you can apply to anything: what each college asks for, and whether you already have it.
This one compares the two programmes we are asked about most — the Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management at International Management and Sports College, and the Diploma in Hospitality Management at STEi Institute. Both are real doors into the same industry. They are not the same door.
The two programmes, side by side
| IMSC | STEi Institute | |
|---|---|---|
| Programme | Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management | Diploma in Hospitality Management |
| Course fee through us | S$6,024 | S$5,800 incl. 9% GST |
| Application fee | Ask | S$109 incl. 9% GST |
| Teaching | 6 months full-time, or 12 part-time | 6 months full-time |
| Industrial attachment | 6 months | 6 months, on a Training Work Permit |
| Total | 12 months | 12 months |
| Academic entry | 3 GCE 'O' Level passes at C6+, or NITEC / Higher NITEC, or equivalent | 16 or older, secondary or high school completed |
| English | 'O' Level English C6+, or IELTS 5.0, TOEFL 49, PTE 42, Duolingo 75, or the college's own LLN test | 'O' Level pass in English, or equivalent |
| Intakes | Monthly | Monthly |
Entry requirements come from the colleges' own programme pages, linked at the end. Fees are what you pay through UniStep, current on the date at the foot of this page. Confirm both before you commit to anything.
When the money falls due matters as much as the amount. STEi's offer letter states that the course fee is payable after the Student Pass is issued by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and the student contract is signed — so the S$5,800 is not at risk while the pass decision is outstanding. Only the S$109 application fee sits in front of it. Nearly every other destination we work with wants tuition or a deposit before the immigration answer arrives, and for a family borrowing the money that ordering is the whole difference. We have written about when you pay tuition across all six.
The English requirement is the part people get wrong
You will read, in a lot of places, that Singapore needs no English test. That is not quite it, and the difference matters if you are planning around it.
Both colleges require you to demonstrate English. What Singapore does offer is more than one way to demonstrate it.
At IMSC, a GCE 'O' Level pass in English at C6 or above satisfies it outright. If you do not have that, IELTS 5.0, TOEFL 49, PTE Academic 42 or Duolingo 75 will — and so will passing IMSC's own Language Literacy and Numeracy test. That last option is the one worth knowing about, because it is the route that does not require booking an international test at all.
At STEi, the requirement is an 'O' Level pass in English or equivalent.
So the honest version is this: an international English test is one route among several, not a gate you must pass. For a student whose schooling was in English, that can remove a test fee and several weeks from the timeline. For a student without 'O' Level English, ask the college directly which alternative it will accept in your case, in writing, before you plan a timeline around skipping the test.
If you are weighing tests across destinations, we have written about which English test to take and what each country accepts.
Six months of study, then a six-month attachment
Both programmes are the same shape: six months of teaching, then an industrial attachment.
- IMSC: six months full-time teaching, or twelve part-time, then the attachment.
- STEi: six months of study, then a compulsory attachment across departments such as Food and Beverage, Front Office and Customer Service.
The first thing to take from that is that this is a year, not six months. The attachment is part of the qualification, not something you arrange afterwards, so plan for roughly twelve months in the country. Students who budget only for the taught half are the ones caught out at the midpoint.
The attachment runs on a Training Work Permit
This is the part worth reading twice, because it is a condition and not a formality, and STEi puts it in writing on the offer letter itself:
Industrial Attachment Period: 6 Months (Subject to the approval and issuance of Training Work Permit by Ministry of Manpower, Singapore)
Three things follow from that single line.
It is coursework, not a side job. The college arranges the placement and it counts towards the qualification. It is not the sixteen-hours-a-week part-time work that most articles about student jobs in Singapore are actually describing, and it is not something you go and find yourself.
It runs on a work permit, which means it is employment. A Training Work Permit is a work pass — the mechanism exists precisely so that hands-on occupational training can be done lawfully and paid. Ask the college for the allowance in writing; it is a specific number and they will have it.
It is conditional, and the condition is not the college's to grant. "Subject to the approval and issuance" means the Ministry of Manpower decides, after you are already enrolled and in the country. Nobody — not the college, not us — can promise you that permit. Plan on the basis that the attachment normally proceeds, but know which body decides and that the answer arrives partway through your year.
One more thing, because getting it wrong is expensive: the permission attached to your attachment covers the attachment. Unrelated paid work on the side is a separate question with a separate answer, and MOM is blunt about the consequence — it is an offence for a foreign student to work in Singapore without a valid pass. Ask before, not after.
Background: MOM on work-pass exemptions for foreign students.
Which one suits which student
Monthly intakes at both matter if your timing is awkward. Most study destinations run two or three intakes a year, and missing one costs you months — this is the rare route where the calendar bends to you rather than the reverse. It also means "when can I start" is not the question that decides between these two colleges. Your entry route is.
IMSC's own English test matters if you have no 'O' Level English and do not want to sit IELTS. It is a route in that the other option does not offer.
The fee gap is small. S$5,800 at STEi against S$6,024 at IMSC is about S$224 over a full year — real money, but not enough to decide on by itself. Choose on the entry route and the intake date, then look at the fee, rather than the other way round.
STEi's structured attachment matters if you want the placement defined before you arrive. The departments are named on their page.
Before you apply to either
- Get the fee in writing, including what is and is not included. When you pay matters as much as how much — Singapore's sequencing is unusually favourable, and it is worth understanding before you transfer anything.
- Confirm which English route applies to you. Not "does Singapore need IELTS" in general, but which specific evidence this college accepts from you.
- Check the attachment terms — length, whether placement is arranged, and what your pass permits.
- Work backwards from the intake, not forwards from today. The Student Pass timeline is short compared with other destinations, but the document-gathering in front of it is not.
- Read the honest case for the route as a whole in is a hospitality diploma in Singapore worth it, which covers the trade-offs this page does not.
What we will not tell you
We will not tell you that you will be admitted, or that a Student Pass will be approved. Admission belongs to the college and the pass decision belongs to the Singapore authorities, and anyone who promises you either outcome is telling you something they cannot know.
What we can do is check your marks and your English evidence against what each college actually asks for, and tell you plainly which of the two you currently qualify for — before you pay an application fee to find out.
Create an account and check what you qualify for
Sources: IMSC — Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management and STEi Institute — Diploma in Hospitality Management.
Last reviewed 10 August 2026. Entry requirements, fees, intake frequency and attachment terms are set by the institutions and change without notice, and pass conditions are set by the Singapore authorities. Every figure above is taken from the colleges' own pages on that date. Confirm current requirements against those pages before you plan around them.