Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will expand the TIP Alliance programme to include local information and digital technology university students.
Called TIP Alliance+, the expanded programme will offer structured learning pathways, hands-on industry experience and career preparation support over the next three years.
As a first step, IMDA is launching a Government Tech Pathway, developed with the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and the Singapore Computer Society (SCS), to give students exposure to governance, compliance, and public-sector systems.
Similar pathways are planned for financial services in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Institute of Banking and Finance, and for healthtech led by SCS and Synapxe.
IMDA and NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute have also jointly launched the Tech Elevation and Career Hub, a one-stop online platform consolidating job listings, training programmes and career resources.
Around 800 job and internship opportunities are currently live on the portal, with key employers including NCS, ST Engineering, Accenture and Shopee offering roles such as software engineer, data engineer and data architect.
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TIP Alliance+ aims to address growing anxiety among young tech workers as AI is said to be able to reshape entry-level junior roles. Tools such as GitHub Copilot can now complete entire code functions, while AI agents can execute multi-stack development tasks on command, compressing the timeline for fresh graduates to contribute.
"The first couple of rungs of the traditional career ladders are [increasingly] being transformed and disrupted by AI. For students who are entering the workforce, we know that this can be daunting,” says Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, and Health, Tan Kiat How, at the TIP Alliance+ launch at SCS’s AI conference this morning.
He adds that employers are no longer evaluating candidates solely on technical skills. "Employers are looking for individuals who understand how to apply and integrate AI in their respective domains, preferably from Day 1 with that company," he says.
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Despite the disruption, Tan strikes an optimistic note on overall demand. Singapore's tech workforce grew from 208,300 in 2023 to 214,000 in 2024, according to IMDA's Singapore Digital Economy Report released in October 2025, with the fastest growth in AI and data specialists and cybersecurity professionals.
Around 60% of the country's tech workforce is now employed by non-tech firms such as banks, logistics companies and manufacturers, with tech roles in those sectors growing 3.9% over the period, compared with 1.1% at tech firms. "There are still more vacancies in our tech sector than we can fill with warm bodies," says Tan.
TIP Alliance was launched in 2022 and initially limited to graduates of polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education. It has since facilitated more than 2,300 year-long internship placements and made over 1,000 tech jobs available. More than 200 employers have also adopted skills-based hiring practices, shifting away from academic qualifications as the primary measure of a candidate's fit.
