SINGAPORE: Making more SkillsFuture funding available will spur workers to pick the right courses that are useful for their career, rather than those that are more pocket-friendly, experts said.
Employers also need to be incentivised to get their staff members to go for longer and more comprehensive courses, they added.
A company that sends a certain number of employees for courses, for example, could get a tax write-off and “that always gets employers motivated”, said Prof Sumit Agarwal of the National University of Singapore (NUS).
“Another way could be that (employers) don’t have to pay salaries while the employees are actually taking these courses, or they can give (these employees) subsidised or reduced salaries,” he said.
Financing, of course, is an “obstacle”, said Prof Sumit, adding that if the Government is willing to put in more money into SkillsFuture initiatives, that would “certainly help”.
“If you are just sending people to train for a very short time and you are expecting them to be putting in their own funds, they may be reluctant or they may be choosing fields or areas which may be affordable for them, as opposed to what is optimal for them,” he noted.
WHY DOES THE WORKFORCE NEED SKILLS TRAINING?
How much more help to be provided through the SkillsFuture Credit scheme, at major milestones of one’s life, is among the considerations Singapore needs to make to improve the country’s training ecosystem, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday (Oct 18).