Debated in Parliament on 5 May 2026.
Mr Cai Yinzhou asked the Minister for Education (a) whether employment outcome tracking under the Graduate Employment Survey framework covers part-time, mature-entry and SkillsFuture-funded students at the Institutes of Higher Learning on the same basis as full-time students; and (b) if not, what separate mechanisms exist to measure their employment outcomes.
The Graduate Employment Surveys conducted by the various Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) cover graduates from all full-time Pre-Employment Training programmes, including adult learners.
The Ministry of Education monitors the outcomes for other funded continuing education and training (CET) programmes, including part-time programmes at the IHLs, via surveys and studies using administrative data.
For part-time full qualification programmes at the IHLs, given the diversity in adult learner profiles, we conduct econometric studies to understand the causal links between their participation in the programmes and employment outcomes. For instance, the Ministry of Trade and Industry published a study in 2024 that used administrative data to show that learners who completed Academic CET post-diploma programmes at the Polytechnics, which are generally conducted on a part-time basis, enjoyed a wage premium of up to 11%, when compared to a control group of individuals with similar profiles.
Wage and employment outcomes do not tell us the full picture. Reskilling may have helped workers, who were otherwise at risk of displacement, keep their jobs or take on new job roles within their existing organisations. To complement employment outcomes reporting, SkillsFuture Singapore also administers the Training Quality and Outcomes Measures survey for SkillsFuture funded programmes, which includes whether the training has helped learners to be more effective at their jobs, improved their work performance or allowed them to take on enhanced responsibilities at work.
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