Government sets aside S$100m for 8,000 traineeships for fresh grads

Singapore

THE Singapore government has set aside S$100 million to support fresh graduates through a traineeship programme that aims to offer up to 8,000 such opportunities.

Under the SGUnited Traineeship Programme, these opportunities will be available to the 2019 and 2020 batches of graduates from the Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics, universities and other educational institutions.

So far, 280 organisations from the private sector have come on board to offer more than 4,000 traineeship opportunities. This includes Singtel, DBS Bank, Surbana Jurong and the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University.

Traineeships under the programme will last up to 12 months, with trainees receiving a training allowance. The monthly allowance ranges from S$1,100 to S$2,500 and depends on the scope and skill requirements of the traineeship.

The government will fund 80 per cent of the training allowance while the host company funds the remaining 20 per cent, a joint statement from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Workforce Singapore (WSG) said.

The programme was first announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat during the Resilience Budget, the second of three rescue packages by the government in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The pandemic has battered Singapore's economy, with the authorities now expecting a recession in 2020. The resulting weakened hiring sentiment thus poses a challenge for recent graduates hoping to enter the job market at this time.

"With these firms participating as hosting companies, our fresh graduates will be able to use this traineeship period to prepare themselves for the eventual recovery, and we can be better assured that our Singapore workforce will remain resilient, robust and ready to rebound," Tan Choon Shian, chief executive of WSG said in the statement, as he urged more companies to participate in the programme.

The eventual goal is to provide up to 8,000 traineeship opportunities this year in various fields, such as life sciences, engineering and the arts.

This will be done with the support of Enterprise Singapore, National Research Foundation and the trade associations and chambers, MOM and WSG said.

In a separate statement, NUS said it is offering 200 full-time salaried positions and 800 paid traineeships to help graduates kickstart their careers at a time many are concerned they cannot land good jobs.

There are four distinct tracks in the traineeships: executive and professional, education, research and entrepreneurship.

Professor Ho Teck Hua, NUS senior deputy president and provost, said each traineeship was designed with a clear career pathway, accompanied by a personalised development plan. All trainees will have access to all of NUS' Continuing Education and Training (CET) courses and certificates for free.

Meanwhile, the salaried positions span roles in the university's central administration, its various faculties and research institutes as well as the National University Health System.

In addition, NUS said it is launching a "specially curated catalogue" of CET courses and certificates for the graduating cohort, designed to sharpen their skills in areas such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, finance and accounting and business and management.

Amendment note: Due to an error introduced in the editing process, the headline of this story originally stated that the government had set aside S$100 million for 4,000 traineeships. It should have been 8,000 traineeships.