Internships in Singapore jumped nearly 50% in 2024, led by creative industries

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s internship job postings rose 47% in 2024, with the biggest increase seen in creative industries. According to new data from Indeed, this was the sharpest year-on-year (YoY) growth between March 2022 and March 2025, when the number of internship job postings in Singapore doubled.

The global hiring and matching platform reported that over the past year, marketing (22%), media (17%), and art (17%) had the highest share of internship-related postings. Meanwhile, corporate roles like human resources (9%), real estate (8%), and administration (7%) saw the lowest share.

Rohan Sylvester, Talent Strategy Advisor at Indeed, attributed the surge of interns to Singapore’s businesses’ “commitment to innovation”. “Interns bring relevant skills, creativity, and out-of-the-box thinking,” he said, noting that these are “critical ingredients to fuelling innovation”.

He added, “Interns will find opportunities in industries like marketing, media, and the arts, which offer them many avenues to push creative boundaries with content creation and digital marketing projects. For employers, internships offer a resource-efficient way to inject and test bold ideas while building a pipeline of future talent.”

Soft skills also played a major role in hiring interns. Communication stood out as the most sought-after skill, mentioned in 30% of postings last year. Other top skills include analysis (9%), writing skills (5.2%), and project management (5%).

Mr Sylvester noted that while technical and domain expertise remain essential, interns who can blend hard and soft skills will be the ones who thrive. Microsoft Office (15%), finance (6%), and Python (6%) were among the top 10 in-demand skills, while HTML (1%) and C (1%) were at the bottom of the list.

Mr Sylvester advised, “Students and fresh graduates should capitalise on the surge of internships to develop holistic T-shaped skill sets. Automating routine tasks and processes is a great opportunity for interns to focus on skills such as creativity and adaptability, which will help businesses navigate ambiguity and discover new opportunities in today’s uncertain world.”

“With content creation being accelerated by technologies such as AI, interns with strong communication, analytical skills, and project management skills will become the talent that stands out above the rest,” he added. /TISG 

Read also: SkillsFuture uptake increased in 2024, but some Singaporeans say it still doesn’t lead to jobs

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