Steady Progress in SkillsFuture Movement

[CY]

According to the article, there are increasing number of Singaporeans started using their SkillsFuture credit in 2017, bringing the total number of Singaporeans who have used SkillsFuture Credit to 285,000.

However SkillsFuture Movement faces stiff challenges such as raising the quality of the training and adult education (TAE) sector, and combating significant numbers of false claim scams.

Are there any other challenges? What can SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) do to overcome these challages?

And also, how successful is SkillsFuture Movement so far? What are some areas of improvement?


Full Article: Google for "285,000 Singaporeans have used SkillsFuture Credit, with more doing so in 2017" by Straits Times (new member currently not allowed to post external links for 7 days due to forum regulations)

[CherylcGuest]

The public could be informed about where to apply for legitimate Skillsfuture classes, and the SkillsFuture body could do checks regularly to ensure the legitimacy of classes as well. Fraud claim cases can be minimized by making the process of verifying course participants and course expenditure more stringent. Raising the training quality could be done by ensuring the quality of the content not only on paper, but actually attending courses before listing it as a Skillsfuture class.

From the increase in number of participants using SkillsFuture, it is proving to be effective in encouraging Singaporeans to continually learn and upgrade their skills. With the large diversity of courses offered, it caters for varying interests as well. More could be done to raise awareness on the variety of courses.

[CranberrycakeGuest]

I think this skills movement is not a substantive as much as it is a normative one. If you look at the kinds of courses being offered, quite a number are not really 'skills' per se e.g. cooking, baking. What this implies, at least from my POV is that the movement at this point is to get people used to the idea of attending courses and continuing learning. Thus, it follows that in the short run for the most part, there really isn't a substantive impact in terms of market-valued skills gained by the population. But, in the long run, assuming that the notion of lifelong learning is internalized, then I think we can quite reasonably expect the investments in the movement to pay off.

[9843YT0698Guest]

Having a movement that aims to have a mindset shift makes it challenging to draw up rubrics to measure the success. There is no straightforward answer as to whether the money, $1 billion in total, is well spent. Are the programmes truly working? If not, could there be many more reasons other than culture that causes it?
Also, will the participants put the knowledge to productive use after the lessons? For example, I heard of a friend who attended phonetics class through an approved SkillsFuture Credit workshop but most of the retiree participants only wanted to learn for the sheer pleasure and not for economic gain.
$1 billion is a lot of money which could be used to help other sectors of society. Perhaps there should be a more pragmatic and conservative approach towards SkillsFuture.

[9832AJ0571Guest]

I feel that there are some limitations to the $500 SkillsFuture credit top-up by the government and there should be more. Many of the course providers charge exorbitant administrative and registration fees, which, in some cases, comprise up to 20% of the total course fee.

[VikneshKumarGuest]

I think that what the government has done is commendable but it can improve on its communications. For example, a while back, there were rumours circulating on the expiration date of the SkillsFuture credit and people were misled into spending it quickly. The government could call it as a form of CPF so that the people will use it for the right purposes and the right mindset that helps them to learn new skills.

[streetsmartGuest]

Skillsfuture is good because it makes a fairer playing ground for everyone in the economy. Some people are just not "book smart" which means that they are not able to excel in the current education system in Singapore. Hence, they are now able to showcase their ability through the skills learnt and increase their employability, so now they are not disadvantaged by their lack of credentials in terms of degrees

[streetsmartGuest]

Skillsfuture is good because it makes a fairer playing ground for everyone in the economy. Some people are just not "book smart" which means that they are not able to excel in the current education system in Singapore. Hence, they are now able to showcase their ability through the skills learnt and increase their employability, so now they are not disadvantaged by their lack of credentials in terms of degrees

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