National Day Rally: New government-funded traineeships for fresh graduates
The government is prepared to scale up the programme if the economy worsens, says PM Lawrence Wong
[SINGAPORE] The government will fund a new traineeship programme for fresh graduates from the Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics and universities, supporting companies to offer training opportunities.
This will begin with a “more focused roll-out”, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday (Aug 17), without elaborating.
“If the economy worsens, we will scale up the programme,” he said, adding that the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce will provide more details later.
Acknowledging that many young graduates are concerned about jobs, PM Wong said the traineeship programme is something that can be done in the near term, in addition to efforts to grow the economy and create good jobs.
He drew a comparison to the Covid-19 pandemic, when many companies stopped hiring, but some were willing to offer traineeships.
These allowed fresh graduates to gain experience, receive an allowance and keep their skills sharp for full-time roles when economic conditions improved.
During the pandemic, the government co-funded traineeships via the SGUnited Traineeship Programme, with host companies paying just 20 per cent of trainee allowances.
Supporting young Singaporeans was one of five key themes in PM Wong’s rally speech.
Apart from graduate jobs, he also addressed issues such as vaping – which will now be treated as “a drug issue” – and digital worries, including online harms and the use of artificial intelligence in schools.
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Beyond jobs, the government will “continue to focus on areas that matter to young Singaporeans, including housing and parenting”, said PM Wong.
Noting earlier policy moves on housing and parenthood, he added: “We are studying additional measures.”
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