For many young people weighing their career options, the problem is not a lack of direction, but a lack of opportunities to experience different jobs first-hand. About 8,800 youths and students took part in the National Youth Council’s (NYC’s) career tasters last year, with 78% or nearly 7,000 of them gaining a clearer sense of their career paths afterwards.
In response to queries from Lianhe Zaobao, NYC said it had offered 8,000 places under its Job Tasters initiative from January to September this year, including more than 2,000 provided by the public sector.
Young people can browse and sign up for career tasters that match their interests through NYC’s Discover platform. Activities include training, job shadowing, “human libraries” for meeting industry professionals, and panel discussions. Besides learning about different careers, participants can build networks, dispel misconceptions about industries and ease their anxiety about planning for the future.
For young people who have already settled on a broad career direction, these experiences can also help them identify the specific field they wish to pursue.
Under the SG Youth Plan, NYC will continue to expand its career tasters and work with more organisations and businesses across the public, private and people sectors. From 2030, the initiative will offer up to 30,000 places a year across 14 sectors and 41 industries.
Career-tasting offered across 34 industries
As of August this year, 34 industries had offered career-taster opportunities. Information technology, financial services, the arts, public service and education were among those offering more places. Industries attracting more student sign-ups included information technology, public service, healthcare, financial services and education.
NYC hopes to increase the number of places in fields such as healthcare, financial services, the environment and sustainability, and engineering.
Huang Kuangyi, 23, is studying computer science at the Singapore Institute of Technology and entered his second year this year. After taking part in the “A Day as a Tech Professional” career taster, he gained a clearer idea of his future direction in the technology sector and is considering specialising in cloud computing.
He said in an interview that he spoke with two technology professionals at the event, and was struck by an experience one of them shared.
The company this professional founded had run into difficulties a few years ago. A post he made on professional networking platform LinkedIn subsequently caught the attention of another company’s chief executive. After learning more about his product, the executive decided to invest, helping the company through its difficulties.
“I used to think LinkedIn was just a more formal social media platform, mainly for working professionals. I never imagined a single post could have such a big impact,” said Huang. He said he would put more effort into managing his social media accounts and would no longer let concerns about what others might think stop him from showcasing himself on these platforms.
Zhou Junliang, 20, will study at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences after completing National Service. He said his time in service had given him more room to rethink his future and reinforced his interest in healthcare.
During his career taster, he visited the healthcare workforce accelerator platform at the National Healthcare Group’s (NHG’s) Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Integrated Care Hub, and the Age+ Living Lab run by social enterprise SG Assist. Exposure to different roles strengthened his resolve to work in frontline patient care, interacting directly with patients, understanding their needs and providing personalised care.
“Seeing first-hand how healthcare professionals can make a difference to someone’s life made me even more certain that this is work I would find meaningful and fulfilling.”
Zhou said he previously did not know whom to approach or where to find opportunities to learn about the industry. “Career tasters give young people direct exposure to different working environments, shortening the process of finding their career direction.”
