Expanding Pathways & Opportunities Across a Life Course: Investing in our Learners for Life

Investing in Our Learners for Life

We are providing more opportunities for Singaporeans to achieve their full potential over the course of their lives, to support their diverse aspirations and equip them with skills that meet the needs of a fast-changing economy.

(New) Move towards a higher "lifetime cohort participation rate"

• As we continue to transform our economy, we will study the possibility of a higher "lifetime cohort participation rate" to provide Singaporeans with opportunities for skills upgrading and prepare them to take up good jobs in key areas of growth at different stages of their career.
  • Cohort participation rate refers to the percentage of a cohort who are given places in MOE-funded degree programmes. The current cohort participation rate is around 50%, with 40%-pts meant for subsidised university places for fresh school leavers from junior colleges and polytechnics, and 10%-pts meant for working adults.
  • With a higher "lifetime cohort participation rate", there will be expanded opportunities for Singaporeans, especially mid-career workers, to upgrade and attain qualifications up to a degree level over the course of their lives.
• We will further study the mix between places for Pre-Employment Training (PET) and Continuing Education and Training (CET) degree programmes.
• To support Singaporeans in skills upgrading and cater to the diverse learning needs of adult learners, the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), including the Autonomous Universities (AUs), will also review their broader slate of CET programme offerings to enhance quality and accessibility.

(Update) Measures under the Review of Opportunities and Pathways in Applied Education

• Second Minister for Education, Dr Maliki Osman, announced in January 2022 enhancements to the polytechnic and ITE sector arising from the Review of Opportunities and Pathways in Applied Education¹. These enhancements will progressively be implemented from Academic Year (AY) 2022. Further updates are as follows:

Enhancing students' career readiness and resilience for the future economy

• Enhance ITE's curricular structure
  • ITE will continue to work with industry partners and other educational institutions to progressively ramp up their Work-Study Diploma (WSDip) and Technical Diploma (TD) offerings from AY2022.
  • This contributes to earlier announced plans to expand ITE's WSDip offerings to 1,000 places in 2025.
• Expand opportunities for deeper industry exposure
  • The polytechnics will commence pilots in AY 2022 to explore the provision of additional industry exposure opportunities such as job stints and job shadowing opportunities.
• Strengthen LifeSkills competency development
  • MOE and the polytechnics/ ITE have worked together to develop a common LifeSkills framework, comprising 10 LifeSkills to help students navigate work and adulthood.
  • The polytechnics and ITE will be enhancing their curricula to ensure all students develop baseline competencies in these 10 LifeSkills.
  • The Autonomous Universities (AUs) will similarly enhance and align their curriculum to the new framework.

Recognising Diversity and Providing More Flexibility and Opportunities for All

• Additional flexibility for polytechnic students in their curriculum
  • The polytechnics will provide greater modular flexibility for students who would benefit from spreading out their learning over more than three years.
  • From AY2022, all polytechnics will pilot a more structured process in selected schools to provide more students the flexibility of spreading out their learning over more than three years.

(Update) Partnerships with Industry

• The polytechnics and ITE will strengthen their partnerships with industry to enhance opportunities for graduates to upgrade their skills and expand their career prospects. For a start, they are working closely with private sector leaders and union representatives from five sectors: Manufacturing, Built Environment, Infocomm Technology, Retail and Food Services.
• These partnerships will help the IHLs raise the quantity and quality of internships, provide more work-study and on-the-job upskilling opportunities and identify and promote access to sectors which offer good career prospects for graduates.
• The IHLs stand ready to work with partners to attract more local talent into their industries, develop their existing workforce's skillsets, as well as create a corporate culture that supports skills upgrading.

Investing in Our People to Re-Skill and Remain Employable

We will strengthen support for mid-career individuals to reskill and upskill throughout their careers, while enabling them to pivot to new careers amidst economic transformation. MOE will also study how to enhance our support for mid-career Singaporeans, especially those in their 40s and 50s, to re-tool and acquire new skills, and seize new career opportunities.

(New) New SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP)

• The SGUnited Skills (SGUS) and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways – Company Training (SGUP-CT) were launched in 2020 as time-limited programmes to provide Singaporeans affected by the economic impact of COVID-19 with training opportunities to access new employment opportunities, amidst an evolving economic landscape.
• As SGUS and SGUP-CT conclude in end-March 2022, we will introduce a new SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP) from April 2022. The SCTP is a Train-and-Place (TnP) programme that combines key features from SGUS and SGUP-CT.
• Under SCTP, individuals can access industry-oriented, modular training courses that are three to 12 months in duration. All SCTP courses will involve elements of industry exposure such as industry attachments and projects. Trainees can visit the My SkillsFuture course directory to browse available SCTP courses.
• The SCTP will also offer enhanced pre- and post-training support services. Prior to course enrolment, skills and training advisory will be provided to help trainees select suitable courses that match their strengths and interests. Employment facilitation services will also be integrated into the programme to enhance trainees' employment prospects.
• SCTP courses will be heavily subsidised, with subsidies at up to 90% of course fees. Trainees can use their additional SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career Support) to offset the course fees.
• Additional course fee funding support of up to 95% of course fees will be provided to jobseekers with greater needs. To be eligible for the additional course fee funding support, individuals must be Singapore Citizens and meet one of the following eligibility criteria:
  • ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA) recipients; or
  • Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) recipients; or
  • Long Term Unemployed (LTU) individuals (unemployed for six months or more); or
  • Persons with Disabilities who are registered with SGEnable.
• More information about the SCTP and additional course fee funding support can be found at: https://www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg/content/portal/en/career-resources/career-resources/campaigns/skillsfuture-career-transition-programme.html

(Update) Expansion of Course Coverage for Additional SkillsFuture Credit (SFC) (Mid-Career Support)

• We are committed to supporting mid-career Singaporeans to remain employable and pivot to new careers in growing sectors. To this end, Singapore Citizens aged 40-60 received $500 in Additional SFC (Mid-Career Support) in 2020, which they could use to defray costs for career transition programmes, as well as SGUS and SGUP-CT.
• To strengthen support for this group to help them emerge stronger in the post-COVID economy and offer more flexibility for them to pursue training that meets their jobs and skills needs, we will expand the course coverage of the additional SFC (Mid-Career Support) to include around 7,000 courses from 1 June 2022. These include courses with manpower development outcomes (e.g. employment and wage outcomes) offered by CET Centres and programme partners, courses that meet the training requirements for Progressive Wage Model (PWM) sectors, as well as full qualification courses offered by the IHLs and MOE-subsidised full qualification courses at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts.

Footnotes

1. Please refer to MOE's Press Release on the Recommendations (7 Jan 2022): https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/20220107-enhanced-flexibility-industry-readiness-and-support-for-polytechnic-and-ite-students