‘Harder than I thought to find a job’: Can traineeships help new graduates?
Job anxiety is a concern among fresh graduates, but the new graduate industry traineeships are not a clear-cut choice for young jobseekers.
Office workers walking in Singapore's central business district. (File photo: iStock/3yephotography)
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SINGAPORE: After applying to more than 150 jobs, AN, a 24-year-old computer science graduate, found herself in a dilemma familiar to many fresh graduates – hold out for a stable job, or consider an internship that pays less but promises a few months of industry experience.
With no offers in hand despite months of effort, she took on a part-time data role paying S$1,000 (US$780) a month while continuing to apply. After half a year of searching, she landed a full-time software developer job in September.
Nevertheless, the lengthy hunt for employment was a demoralising experience, said Ms N, who wanted to be identified by her initials only.
After a three-and-a-half-year slog earning a computer science degree at the Singapore Institute of Management, she was expecting good prospects upon graduation.
“As a fresh grad, you have all these ideas of like, I can’t wait to start my first job and do really well, and have all these things to show for myself,” she said.
“But no, you can’t even do that. The only comforting factor is that I know many, many people are going through the same thing as me.”
So when the new government-sponsored graduate industry traineeships, also known as GRIT, was announced in August, she had mixed feelings about the programme.
From October, the traineeship scheme will offer fresh graduates up to 800 traineeships in the private and public sectors.
It is an initiative of the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce that was set up in April to help businesses and workers deal with the impact of the United States’ tariffs.
These traineeships will last from three to six months and pay a monthly allowance of S$1,800 to S$2,400, with 70 per cent co-funded by the government.
The scheme aims to help fresh graduates transition into full-time employment by allowing them the opportunity to gain experience and skills that future employers are seeking.
But not all jobseekers who CNA spoke to were certain which path to take.
If the option for traineeships had been available during Ms N’s six-month job search, she might not have applied.
“This is a long time without a proper income,” she said, pointing out the allowance is below a typical starting salary. She also felt the scheme would benefit from a “clear pathway to full-time conversion”.
“If companies hosting traineeships were required or encouraged to consider trainees for permanent roles, at least this would give fresh grads more confidence that they’re not just stuck in a cycle of temporary stints, making it more of a step towards stable employment.”
GROWING JOB ANXIETY
A CNA straw poll of more than 100 recent graduates last month found that intense competition from their peers was the top concern, followed by the limited job openings and low starting salaries.
The choice between continuing a seemingly fruitless job search and accepting a temporary internship or traineeship is a real one for graduates – even in fields such as tech, where demand for talent is still robust.
Over the past month, CNA also interviewed 10 computer science or computer engineering undergraduates and recent graduates to dive deeper into their job-related anxieties and their experiences searching for a job.
Statistically, the fresh graduate employment outcomes for computer science graduates remains fairly strong, according to the most recent Graduate Employment Survey.
The proportion of computer science bachelor’s degree holders in full-time permanent employment six months after graduation was 87.8 per cent in 2024, which is comparable to other fields, though it fell marginally from the 91.9 per cent in 2023.
Nevertheless, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng last month cited feedback from graduates that despite the availability of jobs, many employers are also looking for individuals with years of relevant working experience to fill them.
"But graduates cannot obviously obtain the required experience if they are not offered the opportunity in the first place," he said.
The undergraduates and recent graduates CNA spoke to felt that internship and job applications had become more competitive now, compared to when they started their university education.
“Everybody was freaking out. Everyone was trying to get any internship, any job, any kind of certification,” Ms N said of her final year in university.
Jobseekers like SW, 27, who similarly asked to be identified by his initials, found it frustrating that work experience is required even for junior roles.
He graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 2023 with a degree in computer engineering. The Singaporean found a job in an investment firm in China but left after a year as he found it a poor fit.
This year, he started a part-time masters programme in maritime studies to learn how to apply his software development skills to the sector. He is simultaneously applying for full-time jobs.
He said he was hearing back from fewer companies now compared to right after he received his bachelor’s degree. He estimated receiving four replies for every 10 applications he sent now, compared to six to seven replies back then.
“It’s still harder than I thought to find a job right now,” he said, despite having some work experience under his belt.
He feels that the new traineeship scheme could be a good starting point.
He said the scheme was “attractive” with a decent allowance, but wanted to find out more about the participating organisations and roles available before deciding whether to apply.
CAN TRAINEESHIPS CLOSE THE GAP?
The government had previously introduced government-supported traineeships in times of economic uncertainty.
The SGUnited Traineeship was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported training stints of up to six months that paid S$1,500 to S$2,500 a month.
From June 2020 to March 2022, more than 12,500 trainees went through the programme. Close to nine in 10 found employment within six months after their traineeship, said Ms Gillian Woo, director of Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) enterprise programmes division.
WSG did not provide a breakdown of whether the trainees who found employment were hired by their host organisations or other companies.
Statistics available from midway through the programme show that at the end of August 2021, 2,300 out of 7,200 trainees were employed by their host organisations and 3,500 were hired by other companies after ending their traineeships.
Former SGUnited trainees felt the programme was good for gaining experience, but some said it could be improved with clearer criteria for full-time employment coupled with effective mentorship.
Psychology graduate Wei Yongji, 29, was a trainee for half a year in 2021. He earned S$2,300 a month as a programme executive in a government agency, which did not hire him afterwards.
Mr Wei said that while his work was meaningful, he felt that six months was too short to learn much and that there was a lack of autonomy.
"It's not like we were doing purely (menial tasks) or admin work, but at the same time, it felt like there was quite a limit to what we were doing."
Financially, he felt that his lower traineeship salary also partially affected his monthly salary at his first full-time job in the related social impact sector earning S$3,100 a month.
Under a traineeship, there is no employment relationship between the company and the trainee, so benefits like Central Provident Fund (CPF) payments and leave entitlement are not legally required.
The lack of CPF contributions added up for Mr Wei. And when he and his partner wanted to apply for a Build-To-Order flat, they did not meet the employment criteria for a housing grant as they were both on traineeships.
He suggested that host organisations be upfront about the possibility of converting a traineeship to full-time employment in their job postings, adding that this would have influenced his decision of where to apply.
Mr Wei, who now works at Access Singapore, a social mobility charity that provides disadvantaged students with career exposure opportunities, said his experience in a traineeship felt like being an “extended intern”.
He felt that the new graduate industry traineeship scheme was cast in a similar mould to the SGUnited one. "If it is just an extended internship, then we can't really call it a traineeship, a career springboard."
TRAINEESHIPS, INTERNSHIPS AND MORE
Access Singapore’s founder Clarence Ching, 31, agreed that an internship would have similar outcomes to a traineeship.
“In other jurisdictions, what traineeships mean is that it is a strong stepping stone towards your future careers,” he told CNA. In his view, the new traineeship scheme would likely not do this.
Mr Ching felt that a traineeship should have added value through structured elements like workshops on confidence building and how to prepare for a career.
He also called for clearer employment and learning outcomes: “For example, if you do this, this, this, this – then the company will hire you.”
When Mr Ching made this argument in a LinkedIn post last month, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development Alvin Tan responded in the comments section that traineeships give fresh graduates skills and exposure, and “they do not necessarily need to or should be employed by their host organisations”.
“Traineeships are an option,” Mr Tan said in his comment, adding that graduates can also choose to take up apprenticeships, internships, work-study programmes or full-time employment.
Given the number of options available, some, like former SGUnited trainee Bernice Leong, 28, felt that it was essential for young people entering the workforce to have a clearer grasp on the pros and cons of each pathway.
“It would be nice if fresh grads now have an understanding of how this GRIT scheme is different from just a regular internship,” she said. This would enable them to make an informed decision between a traineeship and other opportunities.
Ms Leong was paid S$3,500 a month during her six-month traineeship at a statutory board. She told CNA she would not have accepted the offer if it was within the stipulated S$1,500 to S$2,500 range.
During her traineeship, she benefited from the mentorship from her manager who gave her close guidance.
She was told there was no possibility of full-time employment. But towards the end of her stint, her employer managed to find the headcount to hire her.
Another former SGUnited trainee, Terence Tian, 31, also converted his traineeship to a full-time offer in three months.
A business diploma holder at the time, he was paid S$1,800 a month and said the lack of employee benefits was not ideal since his working hours and responsibilities were similar to a full-time employee.
“But given the poor job market at the time, it was still better than being unemployed. At least I could apply what I had learned in school, gain experience, and have some financial support,” he said.
The stint met his expectations, leading to real work exposure and a full-time job. He felt the new scheme would also be a good initiative giving fresh graduates “a stepping stone into the working world”.
What do recruiters say about traineeships?
Even though internships and traineeships pay less, they provide valuable hands-on experience and exposure to real-world business problems, several recruiters told CNA.
Ms Ying Tan, consulting manager at recruitment firm Tech Grid Asia, urged fresh graduates to “keep an open mind and take on the perspective of building their career for the long term”.
Focusing on the immediate monetary benefits would instead result in short career stints as well as “non-holistic” experiences, she added.
After all, interns do get offered permanent roles in organisations.
“This happens when the organisation was able to assess them first-hand in terms of their approach, stakeholder management skills, attitude and eagerness to learn as well as how he or she handles day-to-day adversity and pressure at work,” said Ms Tan.
“When these organisations have to make a choice between interviewing external fresh grad applicants versus an intern whom they are familiar with, they tend to gravitate towards the latter.”
Recruiters also observed that demand for roles, such as those in computer science and technology, has weakened somewhat for junior roles, but overall hiring demand still remains strong.
What matters is for fresh graduates to seek out job experiences that go beyond entry-level work, they said.
Ms Cheryl Ang, senior consultant at recruitment firm Michael Page, said there has been a decline in demand for roles like quality assurance testing and system administration.
But hiring demand for data specialists, artificial intelligence and machine learning engineers, software developers, cybersecurity professionals and cloud computing experts remains strong, she said.
Mr Josh Lim, principal consultant for technology and transformation at Robert Walters Singapore, added: “A few years ago, computer science graduates could secure entry-level roles with mainly academic project experience.”
“Today, employers often expect additional exposure – whether that is internships, open-source contributions or familiarity with cloud platforms, data analytics tools or DevOps practices.”
BETTER THAN A PROLONGED JOB HUNT
In any case, having a traineeship scheme would mean that jobseekers could be picking up work experience in the time that they are looking for a full-time job, as opposed to spending all their time on a prolonged unsuccessful job search.
The latter can deal a blow to confidence and make it harder to land a job, said Mr Wei, the former SGUnited trainee.
“You are not getting the results, and then you feel, maybe I’m not that good. Then actually you give up and you go to the gig economy.”
Computer science students and graduates told CNA that a tepid job market has added to the pressure to stack internships and made some avoid job-hopping, as they believe that they need to stand out in an oversaturated job market.
Third-year National University of Singapore student Lim Qiao Yi, 21, felt that entry-level jobs in the technology sector were “drying up” after high salaries during the pandemic made computer science a popular major.
But while she expects a competitive job search, she believes there is no shortage of options.
“It depends on how flexible you can be in accepting a role that you might not be very excited for, or being open to (trying) tech-adjacent roles, or even something completely unrelated to your major,” she said.
