Data on Drop-outs from SSG-funded Programmes and Appeals for Fee Waivers Upon Non-completion of Courses

Mr Cai Yinzhou asked the Minister for Education (a) what are the drop-out rates among learners in SkillsFuture Singapore-funded programmes by stage and course category; (b) how many appeals by learners to waive course fees or penalties upon non-completion or failure are received annually; (c) what proportion of such appeals succeeded; and (d) what is the employment or certification rate based on all enrolled learners rather than graduates alone.

In 2025, more than 90% of learners completed their SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) courses. SSG does not process course fee waiver requests for learners who fail to complete their courses. Such waivers are subject to the contractual agreement between learners and training providers. In circumstances where learners face difficulties completing the course, SSG encourages training providers to work with learners to find a mutually acceptable solution, which could include course deferments, make-up lessons or reassessments.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) and SSG track the employment outcomes for placement programmes. For example, of the learners who enrolled in our place-and-train work-study programmes, more than nine in 10 graduates were employed six months after programme completion. These statistics exclude learners who did not complete the programme.

Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the response. A learner who fails or cannot complete a course through no fault of their own due to illness, family circumstances or a programme that was poorly matched to their needs currently has no clear published appeals process to help recover their course fees.

I note the Senior Parliamentary Secretary's response was that it should be a mutually made arrangement between the learner and the training provider. But given that some of these learners are mid-career workers who took a significant financial and personal risk to upskill and the published appeals process to recover their course fees is not clear and formalised, will the Ministry consider having clear appeal criteria and committing to a minimum review standard, so that deserving cases are not simply disheartened by the process of recovering?

I thank the Member for his supplementary question as well as his deep concern over individuals who may have difficulty completing the SSG courses. Indeed, even after committing to the course, some individuals do have challenges managing the training load, juggling work or study, health complications as well as unforeseen commitments. It remains the case that SSG continues to encourage our training providers to work with learners for mutually acceptable solution.

As mentioned earlier, once the payment has been made, any refunds will be subject to the training provider's refund policy, and successful refunds of the SkillsFuture credits will then be reinstated into the learner's wallet if it is indeed the case that it came from the SkillsFuture credits. That being said, we do our level best to encourage a mutually beneficial outcome, whether they be through course deferments, make up lessons or re-assessments and to the extent where that is possible, that is where we try to get the training providers to meet in the middle with the learner who wishes to upskill themselves.