Author: nikita01

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Summer Jobs: Vanishing Rebuilding America’s First Step Into the Labor Market

The disappearance of teenage summer jobs is a structural transformation of the US labor market rather than a temporary economic downturn. Technological change, educational incentives, demographic shifts and evolving labor market institutions have reduced youth employment opportunities, widening inequality and weakening one of America’s most effective pathways for workforce development and economic mobility. Americans must work together to restore these critical opportunities and ensure no young person is left behind.

or generations, the summer job represented an important milestone in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Whether employed at grocery stores, restaurants, retail shops, amusement parks, swimming pools or local businesses, millions of American teenagers acquired not only income but also valuable workplace experience. Summer employment taught punctuality, teamwork, customer service, responsibility, financial literacy and independence while serving as one of America’s most effective informal workforce development systems.

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Singapore-Indonesia Education Collaboration Uplifts over 1.2 million Lives, Strengthens Regional Cooperation

Bogor and Malang, Indonesia, 4 August 2025 – The Singapore International Foundation (SIF) has successfully concluded three joint education projects across Greater Jakarta, West Java, and East Java. These collaborative efforts have directly upskilled more than 2,300 Indonesian education professionals with its impact extending beyond the classroom to benefit over 1.2 million individuals across Indonesia, including students, educators, parents, and caregivers.

These initiatives form part of SIF’s longstanding Specialist Volunteer Programme, which facilitates the exchange of expertise between specialist Singapore International Volunteers (SIVs) and their overseas counterparts in the fields of in education and healthcare. Over the years, SIVs, comprising educators and medical professionals from diverse fields, have played an integral role in strengthening community capabilities abroad. Through SIF’s programmes aimed at skills transfer and sustained engagement, they have continued to deliver meaningful and sustainable impact.

The three education projects in Indonesia that most recently concluded are:

  1. The Early Childhood Educator Development Project (ECE Jakarta, 2021-2025) – a four-year project by the SIF, in partnership with The Central Board of Indonesian Kindergarten Teachers’ Association (PP IGTKI-PGRI) and the Presbyterian Preschool Services (PPS). This project aimed to enhance the capabilities of early childhood educators and elevate the quality of ECE in Greater Jakarta. Over 1,000 educators, including 41 Master Trainers, received training in sustainable literacy, numeracy, and eco-education practices.

  2. The Early Childhood Education (Phase 2) Project (ECE Bandung, 2023-2025) – a three-year project by the SIF, in partnership with the Ikatan Guru Taman Kanak-Kanak Indonesia – Persatuan Guru Republik Indonesia (IGTKI-PGRI) West Java, Indonesia and the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Phase 2 aimed to strengthen the capabilities of early childhood educators in West Java by equipping them with effective pedagogical strategies, expanding access to knowledge-sharing resources, and fostering sustainable practices through the training-of-trainers approach. Over 660 educators were trained. This includes 18 Master Trainers who received additional skillsets to train their peers, with support from Phase 11 Master Trainers, some of whom were also part of the Phase 2 cohort.

  3. The Teacher Counselling and Building Students’ Resilience in Education Project (T-CARE, 2023-2025) – a three-year project by the SIF, in partnership with the East Java Province Education Agency and the Singapore Association of Social Workers. Supported by the East Java Provincial Government, T-CARE aimed to enhance the competencies of teacher-counsellors in East Java by equipping them with skills to support students’ holistic development and wellbeing. The training covered career guidance, cyber wellness and managing gaming addiction, and youth facing mental health issues. Originally aimed at training 100 teacher-counsellors, the T-CARE project surpassed its target, ultimately training over 590 teacher-counsellors from vocational high schools in East Java, including 22 Master Trainers.

  4. Key Outcomes and Learnings

    As part of the ECE projects, digital resource repositories were developed to consolidate lesson plans, workshop content, and training materials. These repositories now serve as valuable reference tools for project participants and are accessible to other kindergarten teachers across 33 additional IGTKI chapters in Indonesia, thereby significantly extending the reach and sustainability of the projects’ capacity-building efforts.

    1. In April and May 2025, the SIF also organised and hosted study visits to Singapore for participants and Master Trainers from both ECE projects to experience first-hand, the application of the ECE curriculum in Singapore. Notably, 98 percent of participants reported that Singapore’s ECE system provides a strong foundation of best practices that they can adapt and apply within their own teaching contexts in Indonesia. By the end of the projects, all Master Trainers reported increased student engagement after incorporating key learnings into their programmes.

    2. For the T-CARE project, 94 percent of participants reported a marked improvement in their handling of student cases, and 86 percent committed to sharing their knowledge with peers in order to strengthen school-wide counselling workflows to support more students. Master Trainers also implemented Action Learning Projects (ALPs) to address real issues in their schools – from student gaming addiction to parent engagement – which drove hands-on improvements and encouraged peer learning. Additionally, 93 percent of Master Trainers felt better equipped to provide career guidance to their students using psychometric tools within a broader developmental framework.

    3. Additionally for the T-CARE project, 21 Master Trainers and Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education delegates from Indonesia took part in a study visit to Singapore in May 2025, gaining firsthand exposure to Singapore’s school social work ecosystem. The visit allowed them to deepen their understanding of how systemic, multi-agency approaches support student wellbeing beyond one-on-one counselling. Participants reported gaining practical insights into real-world applications of counselling frameworks and were inspired to adopt more holistic and collaborative strategies in their own school environments.