COVID-19: Graduates Face an Uncertain Future

Minister Lawrence Wong and Dr Tan Cheng Bock tell Joshua Dylan Goh and Mattheus Yang on what graduates can expect in the when it comes to seeking employment and stability in the job market respectively.

With the economic impact the pandemic has on businesses, job losses and a reduced labour market has caused uncertainty in graduates. PHOTO CREDIT | Prasit Rodphan/Alamy

With Singapore facing its the worst recession since independence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, graduates are facing an increasingly uncertain future ahead of them.

According to Manpower Minister Josephine Teo in a media press conference, it is forecasted that around 30 per cent of graduates will not be able to find a job within six months of their graduation.

With many people getting retrenched, graduates face stiff competition in the job market as they are not only competing against other graduates but also people who already have past work experiences who were retrenched by their employers.

Garry Tan, 53, Business Development Director of ClayOPS says: “The market is such that now there is [an] abundance of people with experience, of course from a business standpoint experience plays an important part. If I can get an experienced person at a reduced rate, who’s willing to do the job, I would rather go for the experience [over a graduate].”

Even graduates and soon-to-graduates do realise that experienced workers are a threat to their job opportunities.

Soon-to-graduate Liu Zheng Qi, 19, a Nanyang Polytechnic Events Management student, expresses his concerns over the pandemic’s recession, saying: “In the current world today there is no room for employees to learn on the job and expectations are higher for various skill sets.”

However, some graduates and soon-to-graduates have planned for scenarios such as if they are unable to secure a job that they want.

“If I do not get employed six months after graduation then I might start a freelance events company with my friends. If starting an events company is not feasible in today’s climate, I plan to freelance for other companies as I am aware of industries that require this service such as the property industry and the e-commerce industry,” says Mr Liu.

The Government has schemes to help graduates in the current economic climate, such as setting up schemes such as the SGUnited Traineeships programme, which provides graduates with trainee positions in companies as well as supporting current companies.

In an exclusive interview with Metropolitan, Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of Education and Head of Singapore’s COVID-19 Task Force says: “The government will do its part by helping viable companies preserve existing jobs and create new ones.”

In his message to graduates, he says: “Do not be discouraged. You can consider taking this time to continue learning and to upgrade yourself. We are also expanding training and paid traineeship positions which will allow you to learn and get some working experience. At some point, the economy will recover, and the training that you take up now will put you in a better position later.”

Mr Garry Tan concurs, saying: “There is this traineeship thing going on where they [government] will support 80 per cent of the traineeship [allowance].”

These traineeship roles not only help fresh graduates to gain work experience but could lead them to land job offers should they perform up to the task during their training.

Mr Garry Tan says: “Tahan (Bear with it) for a while because when things pick back up the SMEs or any organisation who is willing to take you as a trainee will eventually offer you a job and I don’t believe they will shortchange the graduate.”

Dr Tan Cheng Bock, Secretary-General of the Progress Singapore Party, believes that graduates should make use of the aid that the government is providing to gain experience. However, he warns graduates to not become overly reliant on the aid and instead for them to have responsibility for their own future.

In an exclusive interview with Metropolitan, Dr Tan said: “This is a good opportunity to work together with the Government, the Government gives you some aid, but you must on your own not always depend on the aid.”

Dr Tan states that there must be solutions on a macro scale to stabilise the job market, saying: “Very important criteria is to make sure that there is very good control of the coronavirus that means your numbers must come down even much lower. Then we need not lock down our shores to those foreigners who are coming here.”

“The world will read [the COVID-19 cases] as a total number, not just a community spread,” says Dr Tan.

He believes that Singapore has to handle the pandemic well so foreign investors will be willing to invest in Singapore, only then will the job market stabilise.