Singapore has witnessed tremendous economic development in recent times, with constantly growing business and job opportunities. However, to enjoy lucrative career prospects, one needs to develop strong and up-to-date skills in the respective field. Companies are constantly adopting the latest technologies, creating a demand for skilled professionals. If you aren’t sure how to make the best use of your Singapore SkillsFuture credit and develop professional skills, read on to know more. 

How to develop professional skills?

For most specialized fields of work, the best way to develop commendable skills is to undergo professional training programs at reputable institutions. You can learn a lot from free online resources, but nothing beats actual training from experienced industry professionals with the best training materials and resources. Once you have decided on your field of specialization, look for an institute that offers the course you need.

In case you have an UTAP fund account, you might want to choose a training institute supported under UTAP to make use of the funding program. Thankfully, this won’t be too hard as the best UTAP-supported institutes offer a variety of professional courses from different fields, such as:

• Photography and Videography
• Baking
• eCommerce
• Cyber security
• Marketing
• Blockchain
• Robotic process automation
• And more. 

In addition to general perks like better quality of training and more prestigious certifications, choosing a well-established institute also opens up diverse learning options. Once you finish a course, you can go for other related courses without having to switch to a different institution. 

How to finance your training programs?

The only challenge in joining reputed institutions for professional training programs is the cost – the courses can be rather expensive. If budget is a major concern for you, this can impede your plans a little. 

However, depending on which institute and training program you choose, you may be able to use your Singapore SkillsFuture credit to finance the course. In case you’re an NTUC member, you may use your UTAP fund to cover the unfunded course fees. Ultimately, you’ll have to pay only a fraction of the original course fee. 

In case you aren’t very familiar with SkillsFuture credit funding and UTAP funding, here’s how the funding programs work:

• SkillsFuture credit funding

Back in 2015, the Singaporean government started the SkillsFuture credit program to give every citizen a fair shot at building a successful career. Every citizen aged 25 years or older is eligible for this program and can use the provided credit to cover the course fees for a specific range of training programs. Apart from an opening credit of USD 500, the funding program also provides citizens aged between 40 and 60 years an additional USD 500 credit top-up for mid-career support. 

• UTAP funding

All National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) members enjoy the benefits of the Union Training Assistance Programme (UTAP). You may use your UTAP funds to cover 50% of your undiscounted course fees, up to USD 250 per year. The best part is that you can use both SkillsFuture and UTAP funds on the same course to stack the discounts. 

Conclusion

As long as you choose the right institute and training program, developing the necessary skills won’t be too difficult. Even if you’re in a financial crunch, you can combine your Singapore SkillsFuture credit and UTAP fund to enjoy massive discounts. The sooner you start working on building advanced skills, the better.