14/09/2017

More Individuals And Companies Benefit From Training In 2016

SkillsFuture Singapore has issued its first report on the State of the Training Industry. In 2016, a record 418,000 individuals took up 950,000 training places funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG). This is an increase from 379,000 individuals in 2015 who took up 835,000 places. This increase is partly driven by the launch of the national SkillsFuture movement. It also corresponds with a rise in Singapore’s overall training participation rate to 42% in 2016, the highest in recent years.

MOE and SSG provided $458 million in direct training subsidies in 2016, an increase of about 20% from 2015. The vast majority of the funding (i.e. about 91%) was provided through targeted course fee subsidies, in line with the key sectors of Singapore’s economy. In 2016, the top areas of training included Information and Communications, Service Excellence, and Education and Training. The remainder of the funding (i.e. about 9%) went directly to individuals, through initiatives such as the SkillsFuture Credit.

Individuals and companies see direct positive impact from WSQ training

To better assess training outcomes, SSG conducts regular surveys with individuals and companies who have participated in Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) training. Findings from the WSQ Outcomes Evaluation Survey (OES) 2016 showed that the majority of employers continue to find WSQ training beneficial to their employees and businesses. 96.7% of companies surveyed reported that WSQ training had a positive impact on their employees’ skills application, a slight increase from 95.7% in the previous year. Similarly, the percentage of individuals who indicated that WSQ training had enabled them to work more efficiently and effectively remained high at around 90%. More information on the WSQ OES 2016 can be found in Annex A.

Moving forward, SSG will broaden the scope of these post-training surveys beyond WSQ training to cover all training places funded by MOE and SSG. At the same time, relevant information from these surveys will be published on the MySkillsFuture portal, to help individuals make more informed training decisions.

Chief Executive of SSG, Mr Ng Cher Pong, said, "In 2016, there was a significant increase in the number of subsidised training places, and the number of individuals who have benefitted from them. Based on the 2016 post-training survey results, most of these individuals and companies found the training useful to their work. As we continue to invest heavily in SkillsFuture, we will expand the tracking of training outcomes and how the skills acquired are utilised at workplaces."

Please refer to Annex B for the State of the Training Industry report 2016.

Annex A: Factsheet on Workforce Skills Qualifications Outcomes Evaluation Survey 2016
Annex B: State of the Training Industry Report 2016