The number of people who took up SkillsFuture courses has fallen, according to figures provided by the agency.
In 2023, 40,000 fewer workers participated in training programmes compared with the year before.
Source: Skillsfuture SG on Facebook
This is despite more employers sponsoring their workers for such training programmes.
The decrease in SkillsFuture participation was revealed by SkillsFuture Singapore in a news release on Friday (22 March).
It said about 520,000 individuals participated in SkillsFuture-supported courses in 2023.
However, that’s less than the 560,000 who did so in 2022 — a drop of 40,000 people.
Source: Skillsfuture SG on Facebook
This is within expectations, though — SkillsFuture expects “in the region of around 500,000” people to take part in its courses every year, it said. This is about one-fifth of Singapore’s workforce.
The drop in take-up comes after approximately 23,000 employers sponsored their employees to go on SkillsFuture courses in 2023, the statement said.
228,000 workers in total benefitted from this sponsorship.
This is an increase compared with the figures in 2022, when 20,000 employers sponsored 168,000 workers for Skillsfuture courses.
Source: Skillsfuture SG on Facebook
Out of the 23,000 companies that sponsored employees last year, 97% were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs “generally require more support to invest in their own workforce”, SkillsFuture said.
It’s “encouraging” that more employers are sponsoring their workers for courses, said SkillsFuture chief executive Tan Kok Yam, adding:
It shows an increasingly collective commitment to lifelong learning, across the ecosystem of employers, workers and training providers.
In another positive development, the number of mid-career workers who used subsidies to pay for their SkillsFuture courses went up.
In 2023, about 200,000 mid-career workers tapped the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidies (MCES) to cover an additional 20% of their course fees.
This represented an increase of 28% from 2022.
Additionally, about 192,000 Singaporeans used their SkillsFuture credits last year.
95% of them used them for courses specific to industry sectors. The rest used them for general courses curated by the People’s Association or the National Silver Academy.
Source: Skillsfuture SG on Facebook
SkillsFuture expects greater participation from mid-career workers with the advent of the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme, which was introduced during this year’s Budget announcement.
As part of this programme, all Singaporeans aged 40 years and above will get an extra S$4,000 worth of SkillFuture credits with no expiry date, to encourage mid-career workers to upgrade their skills and increase their employability.
Mr Tan said that with the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme coming into effect, “we need to continue to work together to give Singaporeans the training, that is of high quality, of high relevance, and of high impact to their career and their ability to contribute as an employee”.
However, work might still be needed to persuade younger workers to take part in SkillsFuture courses.
About 80% of eligible Singaporeans aged below 30 hadn’t used their SkillsFuture credits yet, according to a Channel NewsAsia (CNA) report in September 2023.
Also, 70% of people across all ages hadn’t used SkillsFuture credits since 2015, when the initiative was started.
Also read: SkillsFuture toilet cleaning course costs S$580, S’poreans say they learn it for free in NS
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Featured image adapted from Skillsfuture SG on Facebook.
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