With their string of As, Ms Jessica Tan, 19, from Hwa Chong Junior College, and Mr Benedict Choong, 21, from Raffles Institution could have vied for places in medicine.

But both opted for nursing and started on their degree programme last month at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

According to admission figures provided by three local universities, a growing number of young people are taking up courses leading to jobs in the caring professions such as nursing, social work, early childhood education, and allied health courses which include physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

The Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), which offered 61 places last year in its social work degree course, raised its intake to 84 this year because of higher demand, and its intake for early childhood education rose from 59 to 76 after places were seven times oversubscribed.

The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) received 2,500 applications for the 300 places it offered this year in allied health degree courses.

SIT and NUS, which both offer nursing degrees, also reported an increase in applications and intakes.

RECORD NUMBER

The NUS Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies took in a record number of 310 students - a 34 per cent increase from last year and more than double its intake of 150 students in 2015.

NUS officials said more applicants had listed nursing as their top-choice course and more of them had good A-level results. Among those who enrolled this year, there were 60 males, compared with 20 three years ago.

Professor Emily Ang, head of the Alice Lee Centre, credited greater public awareness of the nursing profession for the increase.

"Today, nurses are increasingly recognised as professional members of the healthcare team who lead patient care in hospitals," she said.

NUS nursing graduates start their careers as staff nurses and can advance on the management, clinical or education tracks.

The monthly median gross starting salary of registered nurses with degree qualifications is generally $3,400.

While better job prospects were part of the draw, nursing undergraduates say they were also looking for "meaning and purpose" in their future professions.

Mr Choong said that his parents had wanted him to apply for medicine, but he interned in a hospital and found nursing to be a meaningful job. "Nurses interact more with patients and are not just concerned with treating their medical conditions, but also their psychological and emotional well-being."

He and course-mate Ms Tan hope to become advanced practice nurses who are trained in the diagnosis and management of chronic diseases. They have to undergo a two-year master's programme.