PUBLISHED ONAugust 17, 2025 12:40 PMBYDana LeongThe Government will support fresh graduates and help them secure employment opportunities with government-funded traineeship programmes.
The programme is meant to offer more training opportunities amid the current economic uncertainty, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as he announced it during his National Day Rally speech on Sunday (Aug 17).
"After graduation, I know many are concerned about jobs," he said, adding that the traineeships will be a "near term" solution that provides these graduates with the chance to gain real-world experience while receiving an allowance.
Through the traineeships, graduates will be able to "keep their skills sharp", he said, better equipping them to secure full-time jobs once the economy fully recovers.
The new government-funded traineeship programme will apply to Institute of Technical Education, polytechnic and university graduates.
According to PM Wong, the programme will be announced by the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce (SERT) and will begin with "a more focussed rollout".
"If the economy worsens, we will scale up the programme," he added.
At the same time, he recalled the Covid-19 period when many companies stopped hiring but offered traineeships instead, highlighting one particular student who benefitted from a traineeship programme and landed a full-time role after succeeding during the training period.
Apart from the traineeships, students can also look forward to more career fairs on campus, where they can meet with employers and explore career possibilities before graduating, said PM Wong.
According to the latest annual graduate employment surveys conducted by local universities and polytechnics, fewer fresh graduates secured full-time employment in 2024.
For fresh graduates from the universities, 79.5 per cent of them secured full-time jobs in 2024, down from 84.1 per cent in 2023.
Employment outcomes for polytechnic graduates also declined, with 54.6 per cent of them in full-time permanent jobs in 2024, down from about 60 per cent in 2023.
At a SERT press conference on July 10, Dr Tan See Leng, Minister for Manpower and Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology, said that while the "labour market remains stable for the time being", both he and Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo empathise with concerned jobseekers and fresh graduates.
At the same time, the ministers encouraged them to "keep an open mind to different opportunities".
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dana.leong@asiaone.com