Focus on exposure, not pay: Tan See Leng urges undergrads to prepare for skills-based job market
The manpower minister says the exposure gained through attachments and internships will ready them for work in a world marked by disruptions
[SINGAPORE] The growing trend of skills-based hiring among employers underscores the importance of undergraduates putting themselves out there and gaining real-world experience to enhance their employability, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng on Friday (Mar 28).
“I would encourage all undergraduates to consider during the time of their… studies to gain exposure,” he said, noting that this could come through project work or attachments with companies.
Such experiences not only help students prepare for the disruptions affecting many businesses today, but also enable them to build networks and relationships with potential future colleagues.
“My advice to all young undergraduates: Don’t think about what kind of stipend or pay that’s going to come (during your internship),” said Dr Tan.
“Get that exposure, because you need to really put yourself, your name, your face, out there. I think it would make (your) selection (of a job) a lot easier.”
He also urged businesses to support this effort by bringing undergraduates on board and giving them meaningful internship opportunities.
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He was speaking to members of the media after a visit to accounting firm KPMG, where he announced the release of his ministry’s latest Job Vacancies Report.
The report said that the proportion of vacancies in which academic qualifications were not the primary hiring criterion went up to 78.8 per cent in 2024, up from 74.9 per cent in the previous year.
Between 2017 and 2024, this shift was more pronounced in the professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) category, where the increase was steeper than that for non-PMET roles over that period.
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Echoing Dr Tan’s views on the importance of internships, KPMG Singapore’s managing partner, Lee Sze Yeng, noted that internships offer undergraduates valuable real-world experience and can fast-track their careers.
At KPMG, for example, long-term interns may bypass entry-level onboarding after graduation, she said.
Dr Tan also said that the Ministry of Manpower has a “robust system” that provides career guidance and counselling, which undergraduates can tap after completing their studies to “catch up or pad up” the skills they may not have acquired.
Rising PMET vacancies
Aside from addressing the trend of skills-based hiring, Dr Tan highlighted that the proportion of job vacancies for PMETs continued to rise – from 57.2 per cent in 2023 to 57.7 per cent in 2024.
Despite some market headwinds, he said that if Singapore maintains its current economic trajectory, this figure could reach 60 per cent.
The report found that demand for PMETs was stronger in growth sectors such as information and communications technology, financial and insurance services, and professional services.
In these sectors, resident PMET employment rose in tandem with that of non-resident PMETs – a trend Dr Tan said reflected the complementarity between the resident and non-resident workforce.
Employers are also facing less difficulty in filling vacancies, with the proportion of job openings that remained unfilled for at least six months falling to 19.4 per cent in 2024, from 23.5 per cent the year before.
Nevertheless, the report noted that some roles remain challenging to fill.
Among PMET vacancies, the top three hard-to-fill roles were financial and investment advisers, commercial and marketing sales executives, and teaching and training professionals. For non-PMET roles, the most difficult positions to fill were waiters, shop sales assistants and cleaners.
When asked by The Business Times how employers and the government can work together to address hard-to-fill roles, Dr Tan said he was aware that there is a limit to how much businesses can afford to raise salaries to attract staff.
His advice to businesses: Work closely with economic agencies to explore productivity solutions, which can include job redesign or tapping grants to automate parts of their work processes.
To that end, he urged businesses to consider utilising the new S$400 million Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package announced in Budget 2025. This package aims to support businesses in transforming their workforce and boosting productivity through initiatives such as the SkillsFuture Workforce Development Grant and enhanced SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit.
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