Amid a tough job market, some Singapore graduates say they feel ‘ashamed’ to take traineeships

SINGAPORE: With the job market having gotten tougher since 2024, Singapore’s fresh graduates have been having a harder time finding permanent employment.

Though some, as a last resort, have taken advantage of the government-subsidised Graduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) programme, its low pay comes with a stigma attached, they told Bloomberg.

GRIT aims to help fresh graduates earn work experience and boost their employability. It offers participants a monthly allowance between S$1,800 and S$2,400. The Bloomberg report pointed out that the lower end of the pay scale is less than half of a median graduate’s starting monthly income and is about two-thirds of the salary of a management trainee at McDonald’s, which only requires a pre-university diploma.

The graduates who spoke to the media company told of having to “eat humble pie” to get a traineeship through GRIT or the shame they felt in applying for it. The programme has also seen a sharp fall in applications, and while the Manpower Ministry said this is because graduates had found full-time employment or decided to pursue other opportunities, another reason is the stigma attached to applying for GRIT, as there is a perception that the scheme is for graduates who have been unable to get a job.

A third reason may well be the smallness of the pay the trainees receive, and one was quoted as saying that when she started the programme, she was given basic tasks commensurate with the low allowance, such as printing and laminating documents.

It is not as though Singapore is the only country endeavouring to help new graduates, what with the global economy still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, having to deal with the workplace disruptions brought about by AI, and reeling from the effects of the war in the Middle East. 

The latest graduate employment survey, which was released on March 5, showed that fewer Singapore university graduates found jobs within six months of finishing their exams. 

In 2024, 87.1% of graduates found employment within half a year. Last year, this figure went down to 83.4%. The results of the survey showed a continuing decline from 2022.

Moreover, the median monthly salary has stayed the same over the past year at S$4,500. There are also fewer job openings in outward-facing sectors such as information and communications. /TISG

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