Research Projects at a Glance
An Exploratory Study on Hatch’s Immersive+ Programme: Meeting the Needs and Impacting the Life Outcomes for School Dropouts
Student Researchers:
Ashwin Pandiyan, Arts and Social Sciences ‘24
Goh Keng Swee Darren, Arts and Social Sciences ‘24
Jerome Ong Yi Jie, Arts & Social Sciences ‘24
Rachel Tee Xin Yi, Arts and Social Sciences ‘24
Project Supervisor:
Ms. Kuah Ting Ting, Instructor
Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre, National University of Singapore
Project Outline:
This study explores the needs of school dropouts in a digital train-and-place programme offered by a social enterprise, Hatch, and the factors influencing the youths’ life outcomes. Youths in this study are defined as individuals between 15 to 35 years of age (Ministry of Culture, Community Youth, 2021), while school dropouts refer to those who left school before completing their O’ Level, A’Level, Higher Nitec or Nitec, or Diploma programmes. Established in 2018, Hatch is a Singapore-based social enterprise that aims to make digital and design opportunities accessible for everyone (Hatch, 2022). Hatch runs Immersive+, a train-and-place digital marketing and design programme that seeks to develop the potential and improve the employability of youth-at-risk, thus facilitating social mobility (Infocomm Media Development Authority, 2021). Given the context of Hatch’s work, this study explores (1) the needs of school dropouts engaged in Immersive+ and (2) the factors influencing their life outcomes.
Latest figures indicate that the school dropout rate among youths in Singapore is approximately 1.6 percent (Liu, 2021, p. 510). Possibly due to the small size of this population, there is little literature specifically studying Singapore’s school dropouts (Esa, 2012), and no local literature exploring their needs and the factors influencing their life outcomes. The few existing studies investigated local school dropouts’ “social support networks”, the effectiveness of social services in preventing youth-at-risk from dropping out (Loon, 1998; Peh, 2000), and the dominant societal perspectives and contributing factors towards local school dropouts (Esa, 2012).
Photo: CTPCLC research students’ presentation to Hatch team