Facebook initiative to teach digital marketing for free

Social media giant aims to train 2,700 people and 1,000 SMEs through four programmes

Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran at the virtual launch of Upskill with Facebook Singapore. He said such initiatives "are particularly important at a time when digital and tech roles are in strong demand across all sectors of the
Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran at the virtual launch of Upskill with Facebook Singapore. He said such initiatives "are particularly important at a time when digital and tech roles are in strong demand across all sectors of the economy". PHOTO: MCI

Students, job seekers, working professionals, educators and small business owners will be able to learn digital marketing for free through a new initiative announced yesterday.

The effort, in line with national efforts to build Singapore's digital economy, aims to train about 2,700 people and 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in areas such as marketing science, marketing on social media and content creation to engage customers on social media.

The training will be provided through four programmes that tap webinars, workshops, online discussions and learning portals with input by Facebook and industry experts.

Called Upskill with Facebook Singapore, the initiative by the social media giant will award certificates to participants in three of the four programmes.

The training is curated by Facebook in partnership with technology industry association SGTech, and supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Enterprise Singapore and Digital Industry Singapore.

Digital Industry Singapore is the joint office of the Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore and IMDA that engages with the technology sector.

Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said in a statement that initiatives like Upskill "are particularly important at a time when digital and tech roles are in strong demand across all sectors of the economy".

In a virtual dialogue yesterday, Facebook said about five years of projected digital transformation had taken place in the course of 12 months amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The demand for digital skill sets is only going to accelerate," said Mr Damian Kim, Facebook Singapore's country director.

Despite the changes Covid-19 brought about, Mr Iswaran said Asia still offers great opportunity now and in the future, and Singapore can be the interlocutor between the region and the rest of the world.

Upskill is Facebook's biggest training initiative here to date.

This is based on the number of people and businesses that it aims to train and the investment in resources which the company is putting in.

Facebook is bearing all the costs but did not disclose a figure.

However, it said one of the programmes - Facebook Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate - would ordinarily cost US$49 (S$66) per month per person.

Under the initiative, the tech firm is offering the 20-week programme for free to 1,200 participants from this month.

It was developed with online course provider Coursera.

The programme is aimed at students as well as entry-level working professionals and career-switchers seeking to develop social media marketing skills.

Another programme called Rise covers media planning and marketing science for professionals joining the advertising, media or creative agency industry.

It will train up to 500 people.

In the third programme, students can attend online digital marketing courses and join live training sessions to prepare for the Facebook Digital Marketing Associate Certification Examination.

There are 1,000 training slots.

The last programme called Boost is targeting up to 1,000 SMEs.

It provides free educational workshops for business owners to pick up digital skills to help them engage customers on social media.

For more details on the courses, visit https://upskillwithface booksg.splashthat.com/

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 01, 2021, with the headline Facebook initiative to teach digital marketing for free. Subscribe