4 Best Practices On How To Use SkillsFuture Credit

In 2015, the SkillsFuture national movement was introduced with the objective of encouraging individuals to build a culture of skills development and lifelong learning. Under this initiative, all Singaporeans aged 25 and above will receive an opening credit of S$500.

To further spur Singaporeans to promptly respond in reskilling and upskilling (and in turn seize opportunities in the future economy), all Singaporeans aged 25 years old and above as of 31st December 2020 will receive an additional one-off SkillsFuture Credit top-up of S$500. This extra credit can be applied on all SkillsFuture Credit-eligible courses beginning 1st October 2020, and if left unused, will expire on 31st December 2025.

Mid-career support is also included in the SkillsFuture national movement. This serves to bolster the access of individuals to career transition programmes and applies to all Singaporeans aged 40 to 60 (inclusive) as of 31st December 2020. A one-off SkillsFuture Credit of S$500 will be provided, which will be over and above the S$500 SkillsFuture Credit top-up for Singaporeans aged 25 and above as of 31st December 2020.

Also Read: 3 Reasons Why You Must Take A PDPA Singapore Course

Even when the course you may want to take is not related to your current profession, you can still make full use of your opening credits and the SkillsFuture Credit top-up for a range of skills-related courses. This is on top of current government course subsidies.

For instance, a handful of organisations offering valuable courses on PDPA corporate compliance have been granted eligibility for SkillsFuture Credit. One of these is Privacy Ninja’s PDPA Obligations for Organisational Compliance. With PDPA compliance a crucial facet of any Singapore organisation’s business flow, relevant employees should highly consider leveraging the SkillsFuture Credit for this course.

How To Use SkillsFuture Credit

Before diving into the four best practices on how to use SkillsFuture Credit, one thing to bear in mind is that this credit is your property and the responsibility of protecting it is on you. So here’s how you can best maximise the use of your SkillsFuture Credit:

1. As a rule of thumb, never share your SingPass ID and password with anyone for Credit claims. Your SingPass ID forms part of your personal data and contains your sensitive information.
2. Freebies or lucky draws? Do not be swayed by these when considering a course. Select the best courses to take according to your professional objectives.
3. Do not exchange your SkillsFuture Credit for cash, vouchers or other gifts. Remember that this national initiative is intended to encourage you and others to build a culture of skills development and lifelong learning.
4. Be wary of people telling you to use your Credit ASAP. While the top-up and mid-career support credit both have an expiration date, it should be enough time for you to carefully consider your options. You have the power to harness knowledge so you can understand well how to use SkillsFuture Credit correctly.

If anyone or any organisation is putting pressure on you with regard to how you should use your SkillsFuture credit, do remember that this is an offence and that you may take the necessary legal action against the offenders. If you suspect a breach in the SkillsFuture schemes user guidelines, the SkillsFuture arm encourages you to file your complaints at their official website.

Also Read: PDPA Compliance Singapore: 10 Areas To Work On

What’s next after learning how to use SkillsFuture Credit

The next step is understanding the various courses where you can use your credit. As mentioned earlier, the SkillsFuture Credit can be used on top of the current government course subsidies to pay for a wide range of curated skills-related courses:

1. Courses subsidised or approved by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) which also include online courses.
2. Selected courses presented by the Ministry of Education (MOE)-funded institutions. These are: Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics, autonomous universities, LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
3. Courses supported by public agencies.
4. SkillsFuture@PA courses presented by the People’s Association, courses presented by the Infocommunications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA)’s Silver Infocomm Junctions and chosen courses under National Silver Academy.

If you are still unsure on how to use SkillsFuture Credit accordingly, you may visit this website for more information. We hope this gets you started on your journey to lifelong learning!