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The late 60's saw Singapore developing into an industrial country. The Association's Executive Council foresaw the opportunities of economic independence for our deaf youth. The ingrained vision was to introduce vocational training for deaf youth to fill the blue-collar positions that were becoming available as the nation industrialised
Thus, in 1973, with the assistance of the Industrial Training Board, the Association drafted plans to train deaf youth to be skilled workers. With more fund-raising, the Vocational School for the Handicapped was formed and classes started in 1975

The concept of the Vocational School for the Handicapped was to steer clear of the sheltered workshop label that was synonymous with workshops run by social service organisations then. From the start, our emphasis was to provide certificate courses so that our trainees could vie for jobs with their hearing peers on the strength of the certificates they held.

Over the years the school has grown from Pre-Vocational to Artisan to National Trade Certificate Grade 3 courses in Dressmaking, Furniture Production and General Welding. Men's Tailoring was also introduced in 1989 to supplement the Dressmaking Course. 1992 saw the introduction of the Certificate of Competency Course.

The entire course structure was revamped in 1997 to reflect the trend towards a more sophisticated labour force: knowledgeable in information technology and able to provide quality customer services.