We thank Mr Jason Goh for his letter “Senior workers need help to enrol on skills upgrading courses” (March 7).

We agree with Mr Goh on the need for users to easily identify relevant courses. One can use the course search function on the MySkillsFuture portal to do so. The portal also has a dynamic course recommender that provides recommendations based on one’s browsing history.

We are exploring how we can incorporate more personalised recommendations, as suggested by Mr Goh.

We would also like to encourage groups of friends to attend courses together, as learning need not be an individual activity.

We also agree that employers are key in enabling our mid-career workers to stay employable and to continue contributing to their industry and organisation.

SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) works closely with partner companies, trade associations, and the union on two fronts: first, to actively encourage employers to invest in upskilling their workforce; and second, to keep the training relevant to current and future business needs.

To support mid-career workers in career transitions and upskilling, SSG and Workforce Singapore (WSG) also offer the SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme and the Career Conversion Programme.

SSG’s SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme incorporates employment facilitation to support mid-career workers in acquiring industry-relevant skills to pivot to new sectors or job roles.

WSG’s Career Conversion Programme provides employers with salary support for mid-career new hires and existing employees to reskill and take up new job roles in growth areas.

The SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme was introduced recently to further support mid-career workers to obtain a substantial skills reboot to stay relevant in the changing economy.

This includes a $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit top-up to offset out-of-pocket course fees for a curated list of courses.

This list will be available on the MySkillsFuture portal from April 22, 2024 and mid-career workers, such as Mr Goh, can easily identify relevant courses with good employability outcomes.

From 2025, SSG will also provide a SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance for selected full-time training courses.

The SkillsFuture movement is a collective endeavour by workers, training providers, companies and the Government to enable people to upskill and reskill together at speed and scale.

Pao Jia Yu
Deputy Chief Executive (Planning, SSG-WSG)
SkillsFuture Singapore