Young Singaporeans today enjoy more opportunities than ever before, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong reflected during the National Day Rally. He reflected on how more than 40% of his Primary 1 cohort did not progress to post-secondary education back in 1979.
Now, virtually, all students do so and have opportunities to travel abroad and harness technology, he said.
However, this comes with a different set of challenges that are more complex in some ways.
Help is available for our young workers
PM Wong acknowledged many younger workers and fresh graduates are worried about jobs and employment, because of the current uncertain economic outlook.
He then revealed the launch of a new and similar traineeship programme, called the GRaduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) Programme.
It aims to offer traineeship opportunities for a period of 3 to 6 months across various sectors, with these key benefits:
- Gain valuable industry experience through structured on-the-job training;
- Boost employability by preparing for full-time job transition; and
- Receive a traineeship allowance co-funded by the Government and the host organisation.
Building career health is now a necessity
While GRIT will help young workers get a foot in the door, there also needs to be a mindset change for them to start building career health as early on as possible.
As Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng explained previously, saying that like physical health, career health has three aspects:
- Awareness: “We must take regular health checks to know our health status and risks.”
- Healthy habits: “Information is only meaningful if we act on them. We know that to stay healthy, we must maintain good health habits. Similarly, we need to set longer-term career goals and take pre-emptive steps towards achieving them.”
- Bouncing back from setbacks: “Sometimes, things will not go our way. But if we have kept up our health, we can get back on our feet more quickly, with some help!”
Key highlights to listen to
We spoke to two young workers, Li Jiayue and Xiao Yi Xuan, who share their take on:
- (1:30) Being open to job market changes, and needing to pivot quickly
- (2:12) Career health is not about having good mental health at the workplace
- (2:55) What they learnt from participating in the HeadStart on Record podcast with the Straits Times
- (4:56) There are no fixed ways for career success
- (7:00) The kind of skills you’ll need to learn after you enter the workforce
Listen to the podcast below and find out more!
For those interested in GRIT, traineeship opportunities will be available from October 2025 when the GRIT programme is launched.
Fresh graduates are encouraged to register their interest to be among the first to know when the programme is launched and opportunities become available.
