Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng, OCBC Campus
1. Over the past few months, the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce (SERT), which I am a member of, has been monitoring the fresh graduate employment situation closely. If you recall last month I mentioned at the SERT press conference last month, the labour market remains resilient, and there are still good jobs and opportunities available for fresh graduates. Our preliminary employment data shows that the majority of our fresh graduates are still able to secure jobs. That said, we do hear the concerns from our graduates and their families, and have been looking for ways to provide even more support. During last Sunday’s National Day Rally, PM said that SERT will be launching a new government-funded traineeship programme for University, Polytechnic and ITE graduates. I’m pleased to announce that from October, we will be opening applications for this programme. We are calling it the GRaduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) programme, as well as its public sector equivalent, GRIT@Gov.
2. GRIT and GRIT@Gov will initially offer up to 800 structured traineeships across the private and public sector. One issue we have heard from graduates in their job search is that while there are jobs available, many employers are also looking for individuals with years of relevant working experience to fill them.
But graduates obviously cannot obtain the required experience if they are not offered the opportunity in the first place. This is why we designed GRIT to help our fresh graduates gain industry experience and practical skills via traineeships, which can then help them explore various career options, while at the same time also strengthening their employability for future jobs. Leading firms in key growth sectors have stepped forward to offer traineeships. These include Grab, Micron, OCBC, ST Engineering and Sea Limited as well as its subsidiaries. These include quality traineeship roles in areas such as Data Science, Strategy and Planning, Business Analytics, Digital Marketing and Engineering-related roles.
3. In addition, the public sector is also offering about 2,400 immediate vacancies for fresh graduates via the Careers@Gov job portal. This includes roles in data, tech and digital services. So if you add it up altogether – 2,400 jobs on Careers@Gov, plus the 800 traineeships from GRIT and GRIT@Gov, we are looking at more than 3,000 openings available.
4. We are prepared to increase the level of support for fresh graduates, including funding even more traineeships, if the labour market worsens. I really hope graduates will make the best use of these opportunities. At the same time, I also urge employers to take a long-term view, and recognise fresh graduates will be a critical part of your talent pipeline.
5. In addition to GRIT and GRIT@Gov, graduates can also tap on a wide range of available support measures in their job search. Our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have all stepped up their career guidance efforts to better support graduates in their job search. Graduates can also benefit from Workforce Singapore’s Polaris by Volunteer Career Advisors (VCA) initiative, which connects young workforce entrants with industry experts for insights on career paths, access to industry knowledge and professional networks, as well as personalised career planning. Building up your career health and taking concrete steps to develop a career plan is also important. Singaporeans can make use of their base tier of SkillsFuture credits to fund eligible career guidance programmes. We are also exploring more ways to defray out-of-pocket costs to make career guidance more affordable and accessible to everyone.
6. To our fresh graduates – many have shared with me that job hunting today can feel daunting and exhausting, especially after facing multiple rounds of rejections.
7. I understand your concerns. I know the current economic climate is challenging, but rest assured we are all behind you every single step of the way.
8. I have faith in each and every one of you – because you are all talented, and you have that resilience, and you will be able to make valuable contributions to whichever company or agency you work in.
9. Thank you.