Debated in Parliament on 19 Feb 2018.
Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) (a) what are the top 10 SkillsFuture courses that Singaporeans have signed up for; (b) what is the percentage of utilisation of SkillsFuture funds for these top 10 courses; (c) what is the profile of the SkillsFuture users who have utilised the funds for these top 10 courses; and (d) which of these courses lead to new or better jobs.
Mr Zainal Sapari asked for the top 10 courses, so here they are in descending order.
1) Use Basic Functions and Applications of a Computer;
2) Basic Computer Course in Chinese;
3) Use Primary Functions and Applications of a Tablet;
4) Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence;
5) Use Primary Functions and Applications of a Computer;
6) Follow Food and Beverage Safety and Hygiene Policies and Procedures;
7) Tablet Fundamentals;
8) Use Basic Functions and Applications of a Computer;
9) SkillsFuture@PA Chinese Restaurant Cooking (Elementary); and
10) Beginner Workplace Literacy.
Members might have noticed some titles are the same because they are delivered by different training providers. A more meaningful way to look at it is to cluster popular courses into certain sectors and look at the entire cluster. If we look from that perspective, the most popular area of training is still Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-related courses.
Over the two-year period, about 62,000 claims were made by Singaporeans for these top 10 courses. Close to 90% of the participants are Singaporeans aged 40 and above.
However, it is difficult to ascertain if the training led to better jobs or new jobs. To drive those outcomes, we have specific schemes, such as the Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP), Place and Train, and Adapt and Grow where we monitor the progress of each and every trainee. Notwithstanding, one of the key objectives of the SkillsFuture Credit scheme in supporting the SkillsFuture Movement is to empower individuals to take ownership of their skills development, open up their minds to embrace a lifelong learning mindset and embark on the journey. Judging by the take-up and the types of courses most people enrolled in, we believe the scheme has achieved this objective.
Mr Speaker: Mr Zainal Sapari.
I thank the Minister for the clarification. Some courses, such as cooking classes, Korean language classes, are hailed as SkillsFuture classes. What is the approach that we take in order to determine whether any particular course can tap on the SkillsFuture funding?
I have explained this point quite a few times in Parliament but I think it needs to be further repeated.
One, SkillsFuture Credit is one feature of a much larger scheme, programme and movement called SkillsFuture. On SkillsFuture Credit, we spend around $40 million a year. But the entire movement and all the courses, including Adapt and Grow that we support the Ministry of Manpower on, Place and Train, PCP, they cost us about $700 million per year. So, it is different contexts. For those courses that we spent $700 million on, we curate them carefully. We enrol trainees based on whether they are really pursuing that career, and they will be guided and the results measured.
SkillsFuture Credit, on the other hand, is really to open up the minds of everyone that you have a $500 voucher, so start thinking about how to upgrade and, really, start changing the mindset to one where we all have to be responsible for our own upgrading journey. Therefore, it is a lot more bottom-up. The choices and the courses are many. As of latest count, it is about 20,000 courses to choose from. But we do notice that the most popular courses are still the ICT courses, particularly amongst the older Singaporeans.
As to whether some people pick up flower arrangement or cooking, we do not judge. If we put a $500 voucher in everybody's hand, we trust that people exercise their decision well to take up courses most beneficial to them. After all, what is leisure to me may be a profession to you.
PAPERCUTS