Jobs targeted at foreign labour, poor attitudes behind traineeship mismatch

Foreign staff crunch may see posts for manicurists, kitchen hands; but negative attitudes to some jobs also need to change: economists

Published Tue, Oct 13, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Singapore manpower

Singapore

WITH thousands of traineeships available to fresh graduates across multiple sectors, it seems not all is doom and gloom in Singapore's job market amid the pandemic.

But a closer look at the jobs offered under the SGUnited Traineeships Programme throws some light on the supply-demand mismatch that surfaced about four months into the traineeship programme, under which the government co-funds 80 per cent of each worker's training allowance.

One reason is that some of the jobs might have been targeted more at foreign workers before travel restrictions kicked in and regulations around employment visas tightened here.

In addition, economists said that while the issue of foreign-labour shortages may have seeped into traineeship programmes, the…