Pilot intake of youth corps to start training next week

Close to 100 youths have been chosen for the pilot intake of the Youth Corps Singapore and will begin the programme with a five-day residential orientation on Pulau Ubin next week, aimed at equipping them with leadership and project-management skills to support them in their respective causes.

The Youth Corps programme, first mooted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during last year’s National Day Rally, is intended to increase opportunities for youth to do projects in the community and match them to critical community needs.

The year-long programme will be broken up into two semesters of service, with an overseas or local community project in each semester.

The pilot intake of volunteers will begin their first semester of service between June and December this year.

Speaking to reporters at the Singapore Youth Conference yesterday, Mr Desmond Lee, Minister of State (National Development), said the intake had been chosen from more than 200 applicants.

“As a pilot programme, we want to have a more controlled environment so that we can ourselves feel our way forward, feel our way as to what the young people want, what community partners need,” said Mr Lee, who also chairs the 13-member Advisory Committee formed to provide guidance to the Youth Corps.

Among those in the pilot batch is 23-year-old Mohamed Abbas Sheyed Ebramsa, who, together with his friends, runs a social enterprise that helps low-income Malay housewives become financially independent.

“Youth Corps provides an avenue to really match these mentors to you, the skills you require; everything is there for you, the opportunity is there for you to grab and move on in life,” said the second-year business student at Nanyang Technological University. SIAU MING EN