On-Job Training in the Age of AI
One of my closest friends, whom I’ve known since I was 13, is a banker. This, in and of itself, is unremarkable, since the financial sector accounts for around 1 in every 16 workers in our labor force. What is remarkable, however, is how he got there. My mate trained in architecture, obtaining his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the subject. But after graduation, he applied for—and scored—his first job at an investment bank.
Why did the bank bother interviewing him to begin with? According to him, they were impressed by his sharpness and moxie. They also reasoned that they would teach him everything he needed to know on the job, anyhow. Today, he is an immensely successful financier, leading the Asia-Pacific business of a top-shelf asset management firm.
The importance of on-the-job training
This story illustrates a reality that all of us are familiar with: in spite of the best efforts of educators like myself, most of the skills needed for our jobs are not learned in the classroom, but in live settings with on-the-job training (OJT).
Indeed, OJT—which could involve formally organized structures such as apprenticeships or internships, or more informal processes such as guidance and mentorship—often imparts specialized skills that are typically far more valuable for the actual day-to-day performance of one’s job, than the validation conferred by a certification itself.
Apprenticeships and internships in history and elsewhere
It is useful to recall that institutions of higher learning were, at least until the middle of the 20th century, very limited in scope. When universities were first founded in the 12th century, they sought to train mainly clergymen and administrators. Most tradesmen and skilled workers gained their education through clan associations, feudal castes, and guilds.
China saw a state-run apprenticeship program emerge in the Han Dynasty, and by its Golden Age during the Tang and Song, apprenticeships were the main way of learning China’s technological trades: metallurgy, ceramics, and printing. India’ royal workshops, known as kharkanas, were instrumental in advancing India’s skills in textiles, jewelry, and metalwork at the height of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire. In Europe, apprenticeships became more institutionalized during the medieval period in the Teutonic States, with clear progression pathways from apprentice to journeyman to master craftsman.
Today, countries as diverse as Australia, France, Germany, India, Switzerland, and Turkey have national-level apprenticeship systems.
The current system is inadequate in an AI age
Singapore has OJT systems, too, but it has certain shortcomings.
The Workforce Skills Qualification Framework, under the rubric of SkillsFuture, includes an Assessment-Only Pathway (AOP). But by emphasizing paper qualifications, the AOP continues to be hamstrung by an insistence on assessment over demonstration, and the acquisition of a certification over experience. Those I have spoken to share that it has become more an impediment, rather than a genuine stepping stone, toward career advancement in the skills trades.
Workforce Singapore (WSG) runs existing Career Conversion Plans (CCPs). But these are mostly linked to Industry Transformation Maps, and in practice, the industries covered are limited to professional and technical roles, rather than broad-based.
WSG also runs a Career Trial for employers, where firms can try the employee out for some time, with government support. While this helps spread the risk for employers in terms of hiring, it is less clear how trainees—especially those who are seeking to retrain and reskill—gain structured, systematic exposure to new skills.
Most recently, WSG launched the GRaduate Industry Traineeship (GRIT) program, for graduates of ITE, polytechnics, and universities. This is a major step, and one that I wholeheartedly support. But a quick search reveals less than a hundred open positions. PM Lawrence Wong, in his National Day Rally announcing the initiative, spoke about scaling up the program “if the economy worsens”.
Agentic AI threatens to replace the need for entry-level positions. Yet without a pipeline to train new hires—especially on the job—there will be a conundrum: a shortage of experienced, mid-level workers, which remain in high demand.
A national on-job-training program
It is time to ramp up the GRIT program, not just for difficult times. I propose that we institutionalize a national OJT system for apprenticeship, internships, and mentorship.
Presently, securing GRIT positions is largely decentralized, relying primarily on proactive posting by the hiring entity, or a small number of private jobs clearinghouses. Polytechnics and some university programs do sponsor internships, but only for students that have first completed their coursework components. Most programs accepting apprentices focus on technical or professional disciplines, such as finance, technology, medicine, or law.
These facts mean that the benefits of OJT tend to accrue only to limited segments of the workforce. The majority of current listings are for STEM or finance graduates, many of whom already possess the means to seek, identify, and apply to such opportunities.
There is substantial evidence that internships and apprenticeships not only contribute to enhanced knowledge transfer and more efficient production, but can also play a role in reducing the extent of labor market polarization, which is becoming a growing concern in Singapore. However, such systems tend to be most successful when operating within the rubric of a larger institutional framework. A national-level institution will establish the standard rules behind each party’s commitments, promote worker-firm matching, and encourage the movement of journeymen to other firms once they have completed their formal training.
Importantly, by taking the lead in establishing a nationally-recognized internship and apprenticeship program that enables voluntary, progressive acquisition of certifications, the government can also codify a learning culture that opens up the substantial benefits of such experiences to a much wider range of candidates: nonacademic pursuits such as the culinary arts, music, and sport; artisanal practices such as horology, furniture-making, or other skilled crafts; and professions that rely on experience and on-the-job training, rather than book smarts alone. In other words, will the government be an advocate for Singaporeans that have ambitions to contribute to traditionally underserved sectors of the economy, that nevertheless are paths to meaningful, middle-class, secure jobs?
This national OJT system would be further strengthened by two elements.
Unlocking SkillsFuture credits
First, to encourage buy-in from the corporate side, I further propose that workers be allowed to apply their SkilllsFuture credits—including the $4,000 Mid-Career credit—toward paid internship and apprenticeship programs with existing companies. Companies that are able to submit credible proposals for internships and apprenticeships should be allowed to enjoy an offset to their costs of taking these trainees on, paid for by SkillsFuture credits. These discounts capture the costs of providing OJT. Importantly, such proposals need to be more than just providing a job scope or work program; it should detail aspects of practical learning and skills transfer.
Legal protections for employ
Second, in line with standard practice, such apprenticeships and internships should be short-term, typically 6 months to a year. They should include an employment pathway, conditional on reasonable performance on the art of the employee, unless a waiver is granted to employers due to changed economic circumstances. Apprentices and interns should be treated as employees under the Employment Act, and receive the same legal protections and entitlements, including a minimum period of annual leave, which GRIT trainees currently do not receive.
Sir, I first mooted this idea 2 years ago, in the context of amendments to the SkillsFuture Singapore Agency Act, and elaborated on it in last year’s Budget debate. I am making the case again here, with additional details. I hope that we will move toward realizing a national internship and apprenticeship program that will become a key pillar in our workforce training institutions.
