This exploration is done through a structured six-week programme that sees full-time professionals, from a wide range of professions such financial planning, songwriting, filmmaking, healthcare, teaching, law and even urban farming, mentoring a cosy group of students every Saturday. Yee Loong shared: “At their age, it’s difficult to bring the students into the industry. So instead, we bring the industry to them.”

“The goal behind it is really to expose youths to a diverse range of professions, and to let them explore these professions in a deeper manner,” said Yee Loong. “The idea behind the ‘apprenticeship’ is not in the traditional sense that we want these students to enter these professions, but rather that we want to let them try them [the professions] out in a sustained way.”

I was curious about what motivated them to do this, and Yee Loong shared that it all started back in USP. The three USP friends noticed that many of their peers were expressing doubts and apprehension about the discipline they were studying, and the professions they were entering. This got them thinking about providing youths with an avenue to explore professions earlier in life and to discover their passions.

Yee Loong said that the programmes available in USP played an important role in seeding the idea of TAC. As students, they participated in Builder’s Connect, an overseas development-work learning programme where USP students partner with, and study the works of International Charity Organisations or Non-Governmental Organisations. In fact, Marvin was one of the creators of Builder’s Connect. It inspired them to want to create some social impact in Singapore, to contribute to a better future for the younger generations. Yee Loong recalled numerous conversations the three of them had during their time in USP, and how these conversations carried on after they graduated, how the idea morphed and took shape, and how they piloted it at Peicai Secondary School.

Almost four years and nine runs later, TAC has mentored over 500 students from Loyang Secondary, Chong Boon Secondary, Bukit Panjang Government High and Xinmin Secondary. Students going through the programme benefit by having first-hand experience in "trying out" the various professions. For example, apprentices going through the law apprenticeship were introduced to the legal system and institutions in Singapore, and were given practical experience in legal argumentation. Apprentices in the urban farming apprenticeship, on the other hand, were given practical knowledge on farming and got their hands dirty with actual fieldwork as well. Through that process, apprentices discover more about themselves and their passions.