Longer traineeships with job outcomes for fresh graduates being planned, says Jasmin Lau

SINGAPORE – Structured, government-supported training that takes place over a longer duration in companies is being planned, said Acting Manpower Minister Jasmin Lau.

Such traineeships will seek to arm fresh graduates with skills not just for the “first rung” of work, but subsequent steps of the job ladder in growth sectors, she added.

The potential scheme must also lead to full-time jobs, Lau said in her first interview with local media since taking on the manpower portfolio following July’s Cabinet reshuffle.

Lau said the scheme will draw lessons from the Graduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) scheme, which was designed in response to global economic uncertainty and the possibility of a significant downturn or recession.

Rolled out in October 2025, GRIT offers graduates from tertiary institutions here three to six month training programmes in 50 companies in sectors such as manufacturing, financial services, information and communications technology, and professional services. A related scheme offered roles in the public sector.

The programme has had good outcomes, with six in 10 alumni in employment, said Lau.

However, there is only so much that a company will invest in training if a traineeship is for three months, she noted, and the authorities are designing the new scheme to be “more meaningful in terms of training”.

“We are thinking through how you do something longer, and something that’s not designed just for a downturn, a recession, or shock,” she said.

Lau’s comments follow remarks in recent weeks by government leaders expressing concern that artificial intelligence will break the bottom rung of the job ladder, which refers to traditional entry-level jobs.

In October, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said employers need to be more deliberate in training and mentoring their junior hires, and that the Government was looking at whether there is a need for new schemes.

Meanwhile, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam noted that global hiring for entry-level roles was falling due to AI disruption, and that states have to partner the private sector to encourage the hiring of fresh graduates.

In her interview, Lau said there is agreement that the first rung of the job ladder “is starting to feel weak”, though the bigger question is what the next rungs entail, and how to then train graduates to have those competencies.

“(Those skills) have to be articulated and then put into the training programme. That is something this programme would do,” she said.

MOM will need to work closely with companies to do this, while the firms must also be invested in the training and provide “very close mentorship”, she said.

Companies will also need to provide a commitment that there is a job at the end of the traineeship or apprenticeship, she added.

“Training must lead to a job outcome, and if the companies are sincere about it I think we would be happy to support both the company and the fresh grads on such a programme,” said the minister.

Lau used the term “apprenticeships” – referencing structured training common in skilled trades – to describe the potential scheme.

It may not be named as such, she said, but they have important elements to learn from, including clear training pathways and certification.

“For skilled trades, there’s always a person right beside the apprentice teaching, looking, checking, and those are the elements we think will be necessary in what we do,” she said.

Lau has had experience with white-collar apprenticeships in her other portfolio as minister-in-charge of GovTech, Singapore’s public sector technology agency.

There, apprenticeship programmes are ongoing to help officers transition to new roles as the agency restructures.

She described these as “extremely resource-intensive”, lasting 12 to 18 months with a mentor for every apprentice.

“They are working on real projects in the government agencies. They have check-ins and assessments every few months to ascertain whether or not they are going to be converted into that new role,” she said.

Asked if this could be a model for the wider scheme MOM is considering, Lau said the Government will have to look at the needs of different sectors.

The GovTech scheme was designed in great detail for specific roles such as product managers and designers, she said.

“It’s very hard to transplant these apprenticeships across sectors, or even just across companies.”

Turning to the outlook for fresh graduates, Lau said while the situation is “not dire”, every graduate’s anxieties are important.

“We want to make sure that all of them graduate with confidence that there’s something in place for them,” she said.

The latest MOM data showed that 18 in 20 graduates have got a job offer within six months. This is compared with about 19 of 20 in the past, so one “shouldn’t be too alarmist about the situation”, said Lau.

The Republic is also not at the point where it is churning out students who are not ready for the workplace, she added.

“It’s really ensuring that going forward, if that ‘first rung’ does weaken, we have something in place to still give them that very strong first step into the labour market.”