THE labour movement is expanding its career mentorship and mental health programmes for young workers and advocating “quality internships” after a year-long engagement with youths highlighted their desire for such resources.

This is according to findings from a youth task force under the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), which engaged more than 10,000 youths aged 17 to 25.

When youths were asked to select the top three most important resources that would help them in their career progression, career mentorship came up tops, followed by job preparation sessions with working professionals and extra funding support for trainings and upskilling, the task force’s report showed.

When joining a company, 23.3 per cent of youths cited salary as their top consideration, followed by working environment and work arrangements.

Meanwhile, 78.7 per cent said they perceive mental well-being support in the workplace as important but “few have seen improvements in the way (the) workplace or society treats individuals with mental health issues”, said the task force.

Explaining why the labour movement spent a year engaging youth, NTUC assistant secretary-general Desmond Choo said: “A lot has changed – there are macro changes, for example, through Covid, there were changes in the digital world, the way we work, so certainly our younger people have a different set of aspirations and of course, we’re looking at a vastly different context.”

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Choo said the misconception that the young belong to the “strawberry generation” is “far from the truth”.

“We found out that they’re actually very purpose- and mission-driven. They have a great sense of responsibility not only towards their own future, but that of their family,” he said.

He added that they are also different in wanting something more “experiential” and to learn as much as they can in the shortest period of time, even if it means doing things outside their work scope.

“They want to understand the mission and purpose of the organisation they’re in, and they treasure open communication with their employers so that work can be done faster and better.”

Accordingly, the task force, chaired by Choo, also made several key recommendations to help youths ease into working life.

NTUC is setting up a hub for career mentorships for youths called mentorSHIP, which will also provide “other complementary career support services”.

This comes on top of a Career Starter Lab pilot the labour movement rolled out in late April for young employees to get one-on-one mentorship at the workplace. Eligible jobseekers can start applying from Sep 1.

Young NTUC is expanding its network of certified peer supporters in workplaces who can foster a “psychologically safe environment” for colleagues in need and to encourage a culture that “destigmatises mental health issues” at work.

It trained 1,000 peer supporters through a Workforce Skills Qualification-certified training programme and is planning to train 2,500 supporters by 2025.

NTUC is also calling on schools and employers to factor in students’ feedback on their internship experiences and to enhance the quality of students’ learning and development in subsequent runs offered by companies.

Wendy Tan, executive secretary of Young NTUC, said most youths on average have had good internship experiences, but there were some students who were made to do menial tasks or have had no proper onboarding.

Choo said the labour movement hopes to bring its partners, including institutes of higher learning, onboard to create higher standards to lead the way in terms of having quality internships.

The labour movement will also launch a new NTUC Starter membership aimed at youths aged 18 to 25.