The process of hiring an intern starts with familiarising yourself with the various periods in the year when certain groups of people are more likely to be free and looking for internships.

People who have just completed their JC education and are waiting to enter National Service, as well as men who have completed their National Service and are waiting to enroll in university are likely to be available from around February to August each year.

Polytechnic students looking for an internship during their vacation will be needing them either from the end of February to April, or end of August to October. Graded internships as part of their curriculum could last as long as 42 weeks and would depend on the school and course.

For ITE students, internships last between 10-20 weeks and commence in January or July (Nitec) and April or October (Higher Nitec).

Local universities’ summer internships will be from May or June till August.

Of course, if you are willing to offer flexible work hours, some students who are confident in juggling school with work would be happy to take on part-time internships to gain professional experience.

Young professionals who might not be students anymore but are looking to enter into a new field of expertise might also be willing to take on internships as the beginning step of their new journey. These sorts of internships can obviously begin anytime and might last longer (like perhaps half a year). There might also be a higher expectation of permanent employment if the candidate performs sufficiently well during the internship.

All internship programs, regardless of location (local, overseas, or hybrid), must last between a minimum of four continuous weeks and a maximum of 12 calendar months.

Where to go to hire interns in Singapore

NTU has a similar system under which there are also different requirements for different faculties. While some faculties provide an application form which you can download and fill up, most of them will require you to create an account with their InPlace portal.

Despite a more futuristic name, SMU’s OnTRAC II System operates in the exact same fashion as a career services management platform. There is less initial information about internship programmes at SMU provided, but it has been said that the staff might be more hands-on at facilitating your job posting once you have signed on to their portal.

For polytechnics, the recruitment process might be more convoluted as polytechnic students are on formal industrial attachments and will be graded upon their conclusion. You will need to read their terms and conditions carefully, and be prepared to take on some additional paperwork in terms of evaluating the student intern’s performance.

While Singapore Poly only requires registration on their application portal and then submitting an application form of sorts, Ngee Ann Poly’s Internship Management System (IMS) mandates logging in via  CorpPass. Meanwhile, Temasek Poly only needs you to fill up an application form with the corresponding department.

For ITE internship or traineeship, one can apply via here and reach out to the internship coordinators from the relevant schools. 

3) Social Media

Another way to do it these days is to simply hop onto social media platforms such as Facebook and announce vacancies on your own page. You may also post job listings on various groups and pages to get more attention.

As a professional social networking platform, LinkedIn is also well-poised for such endeavours, having algorithms in place that will put your job listing in the view of candidates with relevant skills and experience. Some options will require a premium paid account, however.

Employers can also make use of this telegram chat: GRADSETGO Internships - a startup that matches employers with potential interns or unpaid internships

Are there any grants available for hiring interns?

• Have a minimum of 30% local shareholding

• Have group annual sales turnover of not more than S$100 million OR group employment size of not more than 200 workers

• Possess sound Human Resources systems and commitment towards talent development

• Be willing to participate in Enterprise Singapore’s Human Resource Maturity Diagnostics (HRMD)

Enterprise Singapore has appointed STP Approved-in-Principle (AIP) partners to administer this grant, and you will need to approach one of them for more information. The list of AIP partners can be found here.

Regardless of which AIP partner you work with, you will need to create an account before the interview process using your CorpPass and provide more details about your company as well as uploading mandatory supporting documents. The latter includes an ACRA statement (no later than 6 months old) and the latest financial statements (no later than 18 months old). Once your application has been successful, you will be notified via email and you can then begin posting internship listings on GRTNet.

Funding Support

^Do note that the minimum internship allowance includes CPF contributions if required. The number of working days in a month which is used as a basis for computation of the monthly internship allowance includes the public holidays that fall on a normal working day but excludes rest days and non-working days as per MOM guidelines. The computation for the monthly allowance shall be based on the number of working days in a month. Refer to http://www.mom.gov.sg for information on the number of working days in a month.

A Step-By-Step Guide To GRT Programme Application

1) Register to become a GRT Programme Participant using CorpPass

As a very first step, visit GRT Programme and register as "Company" after creating an account using your CorpPass login.

During the registration process, you are required to select your preferred Programme Manager (PM) aka Approved-in-Principle (AIP) partner from the varied list provided, as there is no actual difference between them at all, do not worry which one you choose.

Do not forget to submit mandatory documents such as ACRA Business Profile that has been updated within the last 6 month period as well as your business latest financial statements of past 18 months.

All you have to do is wait after you have completed the registration step for an email confirmation on the application result.

2) Create an internship position on GRTNet

Right after you get past the first step, a pre-requisite step follows (i.e. applying for grant). You have to create first internship position as suited to your business on the GRT website.

- Go to "Job listings" in Dashboard, and
- Create "Internship Position".

Do not forget that for this posting to become live on the website, it may take up to 10 working days until it's approved and published.

Once you have identified a candidate who fits the internship role, you must obtain authorization for that person. A few requirements they must fulfill are:

Must be a full-time student from ITE, NYP, NP, RP, SP, TP, NTU, NUS, SUSS, SIT, SMU, SUTD, SIM GE or a Permanent Resident of Singapore.

Interns in postgraduate programs are not eligible.

The internship must be full-time and the intern should not have begun employment before applying.

You will require the following paperwork when submitting your intern for clearance:

NRIC (front & back) Letter from the school confirming your internship placement. Must contain the candidate's NRIC, full name, start and finish dates for the internship, and remuneration.

It will be shown on the website like below:



You ought to get an email once it has been accepted telling you of the accomplishment. Simply adhere to the prompts and click on the open request to approve the Letter of Offer.



It is highly recommended that you should find sources for interns before the internship posting is even approved. In such case, you can refer to first part of this article.

Conclusion: The Internship Claim Process

At the conclusion of the internship, the grant's lump sum will be paid to you. What should you do to get ready?

- 1-month bank statement as evidence that you did, in fact, pay the intern the money (you can redact all sensitive information)

- The intern's pay stub is completed and sent each month with a GIRO form (done upon acceptance of the programme)

You will also need to create the following extra documents for each intern:

- Company feedback form on the intern

- Intern's comments as a form on the GRT platform (Important information: You must finish this before the internship is over.)

- Report about overall internship.

Some interns might have been already required to prepare it because some schools need it. If not, they must produce a report on their internship experience and key lessons learned.

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