Help/Advice needed regarding Training in SG

[HydrographySG]

Hello there,

first of all: Thank you for reading this. I really appreciate every bit of help or advice I can get.

So, recently a dream almost came true - I had the opportunity of doing an 4 months internship in Singapore! I got accepted by a company, which also offered accomodation and has a good reputation among international interns (I am a German student).

After I got accepted, I was really confident about everything. I had all the documents ready required for a work pass. But yesterday, I received an email by my employer, saying that they are not able to register me for a work holiday pass, since I do not fulfill the age requirements. And it's true. I turned 26 at the end of july, and the work holiday pass is limited to 18-25. Since October 2015, it was 17-30 before. Well, f... me - I can't apply for the Training Employment Pass either, since it only lasts for 3 months, but the internship HAS to be 4 months, according to my study plan. And for the Training Work Permit, only foreign students studying in institutions in Singapore are allowed.

I was extremely disappointed. Just one year too old. Or: One year too late.

And this is where maybe you can give me advice:

1. Do you think I may have a chance contacting the Ministry of Manpower or apply for the Working Pass nevertheless? (Probably not, right?)
2. Do you think there could be another way of getting a work permit for an internship? I was thinking about the S-Pass or the Work Permit for foreign worker (Maybe it helps that I study an
   engineering study program?)?
3. Do you know of an authority/position/office I could get professional advice from? I don't want to burden my employer with this.
4. Or should I just give up, accept my fate and move on?

Thank you for any advice, really. Thank you. Please tell me if you need to know more.

Best wishes from Munich.

[ecureilx]

Hello there,

first of all: Thank you for reading this. I really appreciate every bit of help or advice I can get.

So, recently a dream almost came true - I had the opportunity of doing an 4 months internship in Singapore! I got accepted by a company, which also offered accomodation and has a good reputation among international interns (I am a German student).

After I got accepted, I was really confident about everything. I had all the documents ready required for a work pass. But yesterday, I received an email by my employer, saying that they are not able to register me for a work holiday pass, since I do not fulfill the age requirements. And it's true. I turned 26 at the end of july, and the work holiday pass is limited to 18-25. Since October 2015, it was 17-30 before. Well, f... me - I can't apply for the Training Employment Pass either, since it only lasts for 3 months, but the internship HAS to be 4 months, according to my study plan. And for the Training Work Permit, only foreign students studying in institutions in Singapore are allowed.

I was extremely disappointed. Just one year too old. Or: One year too late.

And this is where maybe you can give me advice:

1. Do you think I may have a chance contacting the Ministry of Manpower or apply for the Working Pass nevertheless? (Probably not, right?)
2. Do you think there could be another way of getting a work permit for an internship? I was thinking about the S-Pass or the Work Permit for foreign worker (Maybe it helps that I study an
   engineering study program?)?
3. Do you know of an authority/position/office I could get professional advice from? I don't want to burden my employer with this.
4. Or should I just give up, accept my fate and move on?

Thank you for any advice, really. Thank you. Please tell me if you need to know more.

Best wishes from Munich.

what does the employer suggest ?

If they have been doing this for a while, they should know how to do it.

And passes are applied by employer, not you.

Except WHP.

I would ask the employer what's their alternate solution ? If they are staffed by professional HR, they'll know what's next.

Yes, they could apply for a Work pass.

[x9200]

Can you have your study plan modified? Afterall, it's more about getting some experience rather than spending some fixed time (leaving aside some special cases).

[PNGMK]

I'd agree with X9200. Also there is the possibility cough cough that you could come back and pay a visit to the employer to present your final report you spend the last month writing up in a cheap hotel. Provided you are not 'working' but meeting / presenting for business type things this can be done on an SVP - unpaid of course - although should someone let you stay in their apartment that would be ok too.

[HydrographySG]

Can you have your study plan modified? Afterall, it's more about getting some experience rather than spending some fixed time (leaving aside some special cases).

You are right, but unfortunately, it has to be 4 months (to be exact: 17 weeks), else the internship does not count for my studies. The requirements of my university in this regard are very strict .

Provided you are not 'working' but meeting / presenting for business type things this can be done on an SVP - unpaid of course - although should someone let you stay in their apartment that would be ok too.

Since it is an engineering internship, it mainly involves being outside and working on various projects. I somehow doubt my employer would agree to a deal like this

And passes are applied by employer, not you.

Except WHP.

This is right.

I would ask the employer what's their alternate solution ? If they are staffed by professional HR, they'll know what's next.

Yes, they could apply for a Work pass.

I think this is what I will do in the end. I just fear that the other work permits have certain requirements my internship does not meet. For example the S-Pass demands a degree or years of work experience. Or the Work Permit for foreign worker is apparently limited to Construction and the employer has to pay a fee for the worker. But you are right, maybe they know more. I was just wondering if it would be better to contact MOM or other experts first, because it is not a big company. So i am not sure if they are staffed by a professional HR.

Big thanks to all of you responding so far, I really appreciate it.

[PNGMK]

Frankly in this day and age I find a strict limit on timing for an internship to be absurd. (I too had similar things in my day).

[HydrographySG]

You're absolutely right. These strict limits make finding an internship abroad really difficult ...

[x9200]

Have you even tried to talk to some right people from your faculty? I can imaging some Hilda from the dean's office (or whoever handles this on the student's level) will always say "no" but there should be some higher level supervisors including the dean her/himself who can override such restrictions, if a proper justification is provided.

[HydrographySG]

Yes, unfortunately everything according to the internship coordinator at my university. It seems to be in the study and examination regulations, so there is no way to change it. Usually, it's not a problem finding internships ... in Germany. But as I said: If you want to go abroad, then it starts getting complicated.

I just sent an inquiry to my employer, as ecureilx recommended. I hope they see another way to get a work pass.

[okonu]

Yep, the internship rules don't allow for mature students who go back to university later in life like yourself

[PNGMK]

Well ... how do they certify the duration? If it's with a letter from the company my previous suggestion will work.....

To Herr Internship Direktor of the Leipzip Holocaust Memorial Universiti:

Liebling Hydrographer Jungen did drei months digging ditches in the hot tropical heat like a Polish slave. After that we put him to work his fingers to the nub like a Yiddish account looking for a stolen pfennig as a report writing slave; it took threatening to cook him that oven like heat again but he agreed; even to do the last month with no salary like a good indentured labourer you had building your wonderful V2 rockets!

So in total I am very happy to certify that Liebling did vier months working for us.

Herr Lee Kuan You

[PNGMK]

The Leipzig Holocaust Memorial Universiti.

Shit I need to register that domain.

[PNGMK]

No no - a FACEBOOK page!

[PNGMK]

OK I'm drunk so I'll explain the background.

1940 - Grandad Zinke is conscripted into the Wehrmacht and dies fighting Russians. He didn't give a shit about the Nazis.

1945 Great Grandad Anton Schwetska steals a train and evacuates my mother, pregnant grandmother and all other family as far west from Sudetenland as he can to escape the Russians. The railway gauge changed in Bad Ableing to my mother and familie hang out there. Eventually my Grandmother meets a Serbian soldier (they fought the Nazis) in a park. Love ensues. He lines up to emigrate to AMERICA but gets in the wrong line and ends up in Australia. He saves for 7 years to bring my mum and Granny to the promised land of Australia. Anyhoo... about 20 years ago I decided to marry a Muslim lass. My mum freaks out.... why? "Actually meine liebling- you are a JEW, but we destroyed all the evidence in the war".... fast forward 20 years to 2015.... I take my mother back to Germany. We eventually find some relatives... who have NO freak IDEA of their family history. It's like Germany doesn't talk about anything between 1939 and 1945. So yes. You need a whole bunch of Holocaust Memorials.

[bgd]

That's a pretty interesting story.