Debated in Parliament on 25 Feb 2026.
Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Manpower since the launch of the Graduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) scheme in October 2025 (a) what factors contributed to fewer than 50% of the 800 places being taken up; (b) whether these factors include any employer participation or scheme design constraints; and (c) how many trainees have secured full-time employment with their sponsor companies upon completion.
My reply will address Mr Gerald Giam's oral Parliamentary Question (PQ) and Ms He Ting Ru's written PQ filed for today's sitting.
The Graduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) and GRIT@Gov programmes were designed to improve the employability of graduates who needed more help to find a permanent job, amidst uncertain hiring sentiments last year, compared to the exceptionally tight labour market in previous years. We provisioned for 800 GRIT and GRIT@Gov vacancies and are working with the various host organisations to expedite the filling of their allocated traineeships. While the number of filled traineeships has since increased to close to 400, we continue to prioritise channelling fresh graduates to full-time employment.
Applications for the GRIT traineeships have fallen by about 90% compared to when it was first launched in October 2025. Based on feedback from many host organisations, a significant number of applicants had declined traineeship offers as they had found full-time employment or decided to pursue other opportunities.
The 350 trainees were roughly split equally between GRIT and GRIT@Gov. We have sourced GRIT vacancies from companies in growth sectors that can offer quality traineeships for our graduates, and about a third of these vacancies were offered by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Correspondingly, about one‑third of GRIT trainees were with SMEs.
We have designed GRIT to facilitate the conversion of trainees into permanent employees with their host organisations before the traineeship ends. For example, host organisations that offer permanent employment to trainees before the completion of the traineeship would not be disadvantaged. If a host organisation hires a trainee who has completed at least three months of the traineeship, the organisation will continue to receive subsidies for the remainder of the traineeship duration. As the first batch of trainees only commenced their traineeships in December 2025, there have not been conversions so far.
PAPERCUTS