Govts must incentivise private sector to hire fresh grads amid declining entry roles: Tharman
Tertiary education systems must also shift towards applied learning, with work-study programmes, attachments and internships.
Bangkok – As artificial intelligence disrupts hiring for entry-level roles, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam urged governments to partner with the private sector to incentivize the hiring of fresh graduates, according to his remarks on October 12 during a panel discussion on AI and jobs. President Tharman emphasized that tertiary education systems must shift their focus towards applied learning through work-study programs, attachments, and internships.
He warned that while economic growth remains crucial for securing good jobs, it no longer suffices, citing weak job creation in countries like China and India despite their strong growth rates.
The President stressed that governments must address the issue of disappearing entry-level employment, particularly in AI-exposed sectors such as technology. He urged governments and the private sector to collaborate to ensure fresh graduates can secure their first job and build a career ladder through structural measures rather than temporary crisis responses.
Universities and tertiary institutions, now overwhelmingly academically focused, must also adapt to the evolving workplace, with a stronger emphasis on applied learning and work-integrated education, particularly for developing countries where such pathways still need to be developed.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva highlighted the potential of Small AI, affordable applications built for local languages, infrastructure, and budgets, to drive growth and employment in developing countries. These applications could particularly benefit sectors like infrastructure, construction, agriculture, primary healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing.
In India, for example, a platform is being developed to connect small farmers and cooperatives with better fertilizers, seeds, crop insurance, and credit, enabling illiterate farmers to use mobile phones to address plant diseases without needing specialized knowledge.
IMF president Ajay Banga agreed that AI presents both challenges and opportunities, particularly for middle to lower-income countries. He cited the example of China, where a service alliance for one-person companies has been established to provide shared access to computing power, AI models, and professional services. Such initiatives could lead to the rise of the one-person company and new growth sectors in the job market.
IMF managing director Georgieva emphasized that the next wave of AI's adoption could be as democratic as the cell phone, provided that access to electricity, digital connectivity, and protection against bad actors is ensured.
Written by urgent.news from Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
