SIT to give undergrads nearly 2 years’ work experience for better job prospects in age of AI

SINGAPORE – Singapore Institute of Technology students in four engineering and ICT courses will soon have almost two years of work experience by the time they graduate, boosting their job prospects as AI use spreads rapidly.

Offered under a new pilot programme to start from September 2027, it is the longest undergraduate work attachment of any of the six local autonomous universities.

The move is meant to give fresh graduates an edge in their job hunt as the growing capabilities of AI raise the bar for new hires.

Dubbed “2+2”, the programme will have undergraduates spending their first two years on campus and the next two years in deeper workplace immersion.

SIT president Chua Kee Chaing said: “With AI being able to do what fresh graduates used to do in Year 1, even Year 2, employers are expecting that fresh graduates have to do higher-order work, maybe up to Year 3 type (of work).

“If we... give our students longer experience with the companies, by the time they graduate, they would be ready to do much higher-order work.”

The new “2+2” programme will be piloted with penultimate-year students selected from four degree programmes: ICT (Information Security), ICT (Software Engineering), electrical and electronic engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Companies on the programme include A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics, STMicroelectronics, and Applied Materials in the semiconductor industry, as well as Ensign InfoSecurity and NCS in the cybersecurity field.

The number of participating students will depend on the opportunities offered by the employers and the outcome of the selection processes. Students will be invited to sign up for the 2+2 programme, and go for interviews by the companies facilitated by SIT.

The 2+2 model is an extension of SIT’s existing Integrated Work Study Programme (IWSP), which includes an internship of eight to 12 months.

Since the launch of IWSP in 2014, SIT has worked closely with more than 1,000 companies to offer each SIT student an average of three positions to choose from.

IWSP is compulsory for the 2,500 SIT students outside of the institution’s Health and Social Sciences courses. Those students go on clinical placements instead.

Close to half of the students who went on IWSP internships received advance full-time employment offers from their IWSP employers, according to SIT’s Graduate Employment Survey 2025.

Chua said what is most important for universities today, given the easy availability of content knowledge, is to help students strengthen their fundamentals, which will equip them to continue learning beyond their studies, and hence strengthen their employability for life.

The four degree courses were chosen for the 2+2 pilot because the companies in these fields have high hiring needs, Chua said.

He elaborated: “The semiconductor industry is gearing up for quite a lot of expansion, and they are already very keen to mould young people to their needs.

“There’s a real shortage of good cybersecurity people… you need people who really know how to protect systems, especially... as AI is able to probe your vulnerabilities much faster.”

ICT students on the 2+2 programme will return to campus for classes one day a week during the first eight months; some modules will be delivered online. After the first eight months, students will continue their work attachments full-time while they work on their capstone project.

Participating engineering students will similarly spend their first two years completing their foundational curriculum before beginning the 2+2 programme in Year 3.

During their internships, students will also study to acquire the relevant micro-credentials – such as a specialist certificate in data analytics in engineering – online and on campus, as well as complete their capstone project.

Chua said the 2+2 model takes IWSP a step further, as it will require the company to develop students with SIT. “We’re starting with a pilot with companies that we are quite confident will have the ability and the bandwidth to co‑nurture the students with us.”

Students will take on projects in the company to fulfil what the company needs, but also to fulfil the learning outcomes of their academic programmes. Their work will be assessed jointly by the company’s workplace supervisors and SIT’s academic staff, who will meet regularly to discuss the students’ progress.

Chua noted that 2+2 will not replace IWSP, as he wants to provide choices for students.

“For students who value more time in the industry, we would want to encourage them to do this. But some students still think that they learn better in the university, so we want to give them a choice,” he said.

Chua said the programme is beneficial for both students and companies. “I always tell companies that they have eight to 12 months to interview my students, as opposed to a one-hour or two-hour interview session.”

More experience in an “authentic” work environment will also help students develop transferable skills, he said. “They have to interact with the rest of the staff of the company. They have to carry themselves (well). They have to do presentations. They have to communicate well.”

Serene Yeo, vice-president of human resources at a participating firm Ensign InfoSecurity, concurred: “Technical knowledge alone is not enough. It is just as important to work well with others, exercise sound judgment, communicate with confidence, and adapt as expectations change, especially in a fast-evolving field like cybersecurity.

“These capabilities are best developed through sustained exposure, coaching, and feedback in a real working environment.”

Foo Kuo Yang, senior director of Singapore country human resources at STMicroelectronics, said the 2+2 programme will allow students to foster stronger connections with the firm’s employees.

“These interactions promote empathy, encourage inter-generational learning, and build meaningful relationships that strengthen collaboration across our workplace,” he said.