Students from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and Temasek Polytechnic will be able to learn how to run a hawker stall under a new apprenticeship and internship programme expected to start in April 2027. Participating hawkers will pay students an internship allowance.
The two schools and the Hawkers of Food Centres association signed a three-year agreement on Wednesday (11 November 2026). The programme aims to bring more young people into the trade by giving them a chance to work alongside experienced hawkers.
What Students Will Learn at a Hawker Stall
Students will get hands-on practice preparing food and see what it takes to keep a stall running day to day.
ITE plans to offer short placements of two to three weeks. The director of ITE College West’s School of Hospitality told Lianhe Zaobao that students would get to learn about the recipes and daily routines of the hawkers they train with.
The stall placements will add to the internship opportunities already available to ITE students in culinary arts, baking and pastry courses, such as those at hotels and restaurants. At the stalls, students can see how hawkers prepare ingredients while maintaining food hygiene, promote what they sell and keep track of what they spend and earn.
Bringing More Young People Into the Trade
The president of Hawkers of Food Centres told Lianhe Zaobao that the association wanted young people considering a food business to see running a stall as a possible starting point. He also said the association was open to hearing from young people about how to promote hawker businesses on social media.
Speaking at the signing, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Goh Hanyan said she hoped a new generation of hawkers would bring ideas of their own to a trade that has been passed down for generations, 8world reported. Singapore’s hawker culture was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in December 2020.
