Proportion of University, Polytechnic and ITE Students Embarking on Work Internships

13 Ms Sun Xueling asked the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) (a) what proportion of University students, Polytechnic and ITE students currently embark on work internships during their studies; (b) what is the duration and nature of these internships; and (c) what can be done to encourage more companies to provide internship opportunities for young Singaporeans.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)): Mr Deputy Speaker, internships and industry attachments are an important aspect of higher education in Singapore. They provide students with meaningful learning experience in a real-world context, help them develop fuller perspectives of the various industries and better prepare them for work.

Our post-Secondary education institutes (PSEIs) source and facilitate placements for students to go on internships. Today, 44% of Institute of Technical Education (ITE), 98% of polytechnic and 70% of university students take up internships. Some students complete two or more internships during their studies.

Internships for PSEI students are typically between eight and 24 weeks that means about two to six months in terms of duration. In some instances, internships could last up to a year, depending on the structure of the courses that students are enrolled in.

Internships are usually designed to complement the curriculum in the PSEIs, and to bridge theory and practice for the students. The PSEIs work closely with industry partners to design internship programmes. They identify key competencies that interns should acquire and other learning outcomes that would enhance the students’ employability in respective fields during internship.

It is important to ensure that internships are carried out as intended and are meaningful for the students. To this end, our PSEIs have been progressively enhancing the internships, such as introducing structured mentorships, to better meet our students’ learning needs.

Industry support is key in ensuring the availability and quality of internships for PSEI students. The PSEIs frequently engage current and new industry partners, as well as companies, to explore new internship opportunities. They also tap on the help of industry associations and economic agencies. Companies are increasingly willing to host interns to develop their talent pipeline and assess potential candidates for recruitment.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary. I just wanted to ask whether companies that offer internships to students consider the internship period as relevant work experience and whether they consider, in terms of employment thereafter, these students who have gone through the internship by giving them some increment in terms of salary, so that they get a higher salary grade when they are eventually employed by the companies.

Ms Low Yen Ling: I want to thank Dr Intan for her questions and I want to assure her that the PSEIs understand the value that the internship will bring to the students. It will better prepare them for work, like she has shared, and the students also understand and appreciate the value that the internship will bring to their CV, really allowing them to have a better appreciation of what they have learnt in school, bridging theory and practice, so that they will be well placed to adjust to the workforce.

The example that Dr Intan has mentioned is aligned to why we started the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme. The SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programme is a work-learn initiative that allows the graduates from polytechnic and ITE immediately upon their graduation, whether it is in ITE or polytechnic, to join a host company between 12 and 18 months, even longer.

It is necessary for them to spend between 12 and 18 months because we are trying to achieve two objectives: to allow them to have meaningful work experience that is aligned to what they have learnt in polytechnic or ITE; at the same time, to build on that foundation such that they can even articulate to a specialist diploma if they were polytechnic graduates, or maybe a technical diploma if they graduate from ITE. So, we do have a conduit to facilitate the intent that the Member has mentioned.

Ms Sun Xueling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the comprehensive answer. I would like to enquire if there is an intention to build up the proportion of ITE graduates going for internships from 44%, closer to 100%, and the same for university graduates as well?

Ms Low Yen Ling: I want to thank Ms Sun Xueling for her two supplementary questions. Allow me to explain. Even with the applied learning nature of the ITE education, actually, hands-on training is already very, very much part of the core curriculum of ITE now. Currently, more than half, or about 60% of the ITE courses include an internship component. Moving forward, the remaining ITE courses will also be, in a way, enhanced to include an internship component such that by year 2020, all ITE courses will offer enhanced internship.

The Member also asked about the Autonomous Universities (AUs). Allow me to share that, as some AUs like the Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Technology and Design and Singapore University of Social Sciences, internships are already compulsory. The Singapore Institute of Technology has its eight- to 12-month long Integrated Work Study Programme. Internships are strongly encouraged at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University and in certain courses, attachments are a part of the curriculum such that for the undergraduates, they will have to complete internship as part of the graduation requirement.

Ms K Thanaletchimi (Nominated Member): I would just like to seek a clarification on internship. Do we really monitor the quality of internship programme? And do we evaluate it because companies may seem keen to provide internship but who does the monitoring, evaluation and feedback?

Ms Low Yen Ling: I want to thank the Member Ms Thanaletchimi for the supplementary questions. I want to assure her that the PSEIs take the quality of the internship very seriously. PSEIs usually will conduct post-internship surveys to seek the feedback of students on the quality of the internship and also the supervision that is provided by the host companies, as well as whether the prescribed learning outcomes that were mapped before the internship have been achieved and to what extent. I have checked and confirmed that PSEIs have ceased partnering some host companies because they have received poor feedback from the students.

The key really is, we want to ensure that the learning outcomes of our students are at the centre, at the heart of what we are doing here.