More Singaporeans used their SkillsFuture Credit last year, with the numbers more than double that of 2016.

In all, 160,000 Singaporeans began using their $500 SkillsFuture Credit last year. This brought the total number of users to more than 285,000 since the scheme was launched in January 2016.

More than 126,000 people used the scheme in the first year, or about 5 per cent of all eligible Singaporeans.

SkillsFuture Singapore chief executive Ng Cher Pong gave the media an update on the scheme yesterday.

The credit is given to all Singaporeans aged 25 and older to pay for training courses, as part of the Government's effort to get people thinking about lifelong learning.

The most popular course category last year was infocomm technology. And the people who used the credit last year were spread across various ages, with slightly higher use by those in the 25 to 29 and 30 to 39 age groups.

While the outcomes of individual programmes are tracked closely, Mr Ng said it is hard to find a single indicator to measure how well the SkillsFuture movement is building a culture of lifelong learning.

Rather, the agency looks at several indicators, including training participation rate, studies by international bodies on lifelong learning in different countries, and qualitative feedback from users.

SEE TOP OF THE NEWS