Polytechnics are also coming up with initiatives to help their graduates. They include job placement opportunities and apprenticeships - including some on campus - virtual career fairs and career counselling sessions.Some of those who have been unsuccessful in their job hunt are taking up internships, doing odd jobs or considering further studies to stay positive and stop disillusion from creeping in so early in their post-school life.
Graduating with a degree in Sociology from the NUS, Ms Teo managed to secure a six-month internship at telecommunications start-up Toku instead, which she started in mid-May. Mr Jared Silitonga, 25, a graduating student at the SIM-University of Buffalo, secured a marketing internship at a social media monitoring company after searching for a job for about four months.
Unfortunately, given the bleak job markets in Singapore and elsewhere, some graduates saw their job or internship offers rescinded. After the offer was withdrawn, Mr Tan and his classmates had to start sourcing for an internship in Singapore instead, with the school helping to match the undergraduates to restaurants.But some of them had found it difficult to find one, as most restaurants were badly affected during the circuit breaker period - from Apr 7 to Jun 1 - since patrons could not dine in and thus the owners could not afford to offer paid internships.
The marketing graduate said: “I do feel a sense of dejection, having to put this dream of embarking on this new milestone with SIA to a pause.” With COVID-19 putting a damper on what could have been an exciting start to their next phase in life, many of the fresh graduates interviewed welcomed the initiatives rolled out by the Government, especially the SGUnited Traineeships Programme.
Ms Charlene Tan, 23, who is graduating this year with a degree in accountancy from the Nanyang Technological University has applied for traineeships in analyst and operational risk roles at the DBS Bank through the SGUnited traineeship programme. A check on the traineeship portal found roles for fresh graduates in private organisations such as Singtel, DBS and Surbana Jurong, and public agencies such as WSG, the Housing and Development Board and several ministries, as well as institutes of higher learning such as NUS and NTU.
Veteran human resource practitioner Adrian Tan said: “When the market returns to normal eventually, these individuals will be ahead of the pack.” “Conversion under normal circumstances is very subjective, more so during a pandemic. The chance is definitely lower,” said Mr Tan.Both Mr Tan and Mr Choo suggested that graduates turn to school alumni networks for job opportunities.
“If a diploma holder is doing the same job as a university graduate – shouldn’t the allowance be similar? To say that university students invested more in their academic pursuit, and therefore deserve a higher figure compared to an ITE or diploma graduate does not hold water,” he added. “At this point, I can’t be choosy. I can’t sit around and wait for replies from companies. If I get an offer, I might not think twice,” he added.In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Mr Tharman stressed that Singapore “cannot wait for the employment market to recover and to solve these problems on its own”.
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