By Shukry Rashid and Jonathan Tan
Introductory Workshops
NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) held its inaugural SkillsFuture Credit Connect workshop on 9 January 2016 at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability to help Singaporeans learn more about how to utilise their SkillsFuture Credit.
Besides introducing what SkillsFuture Credit is, the workshop also showed participants how to navigate the SkillsFuture course directory.
Deputy CEO of e2i Gary Goh said: “Today’s workshop is part of the SkillsFuture initiatives and we recognise that SkillsFuture is highly relevant to what e2i does here."
Skills Profiling
Perhaps the biggest value-add of the course is a skills profiling exercise that allows participants to better understand their training needs and thus, narrow down the kind of courses they should sign up for.
One of the participants was 54-year old Lee Poh Chin, who felt motivated after attending the workshop. She was aware of SkillsFuture Credit before attending the workshop, but was not sure how to go about it.
“We were also asked to reflect on the phases on our current career path, situation, circumstance… I’ve not done that for quite a while so it was a good time to reflect,” she added.
Courses For Consideration
In recent issues of NTUC This Week, we’ve highlighted how the $500 in SkillsFuture Credit (SFC) can be used to offset the costs of the 10,000 training courses listed in the SkillsFuture Credit course directory.
As an additional benefit, NTUC members can get up to $250 in additional subsidies from UTAP (Union Training Assistance Programme) for courses approved by NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute).
UTAP can be used together with SFC for courses approved on both lists at NTUC LearningHub (LHub).
LHub’s online platform features an extensive list of UTAP- and SFC-approved courses that caters to individuals with specific needs at different stages of their working careers.
For ease of navigation, the courses are divided into categories such as ‘Fresh Joiners’ for those new to the workforce; ‘Upgrade Skills’ for workers looking to gain a competitive edge; ‘Career Transition’ for individuals looking to switch industries; and ‘Back To Work’ for people looking re-enter the workforce.
Special tiered subsidies are also available for workers aged over 40 to make skills upgrading more affordable and accessible. With a range of programmes that span technical to technological, administrative to interpersonal, almost anyone will be able to find something that will add value to their current jobs,
Good To Know
The SkillsFuture Credit Connect workshop will be held every Wednesday at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability. To register, visit the events page here.
Cross check courses eligible for UTAP subsidy here.
Find out more about NTUC LearningHub programmes here, or head on down to NTUC Trade Union House, 73 Bras Basah Road, #02-01.
