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Get smart about SkillsFuture

smart skillsfuture
smart skillsfuture
smart skillsfuture
smart skillsfuture

by Brenda Tan

I CONFESS. When my editor asked me to write about how I would go using my SkillsFuture (SF) credit, I was stumped.

I know about SkillsFuture. I am aware of what it is, its aims, its benefits, and the generous $500 credit that every Singapore citizen above 25 years old have in the SkillsFuture account. An account that will be periodically topped up, where the credits will never expire in our lifetime.

I fully support the G helping to create a culture of lifelong learning with the very practical sum of money for citizens to take up courses, and more importantly, giving citizens that choice about what skills – both technical and soft skills – to learn.

Unlike a person starting out his career and hoping to use the SkillsFuture credit pragmatically to beef up his repertoire of skills to work effectively, how would the SkillsFuture credit help an entrepreneur with an already established global practice like me?

For quite a few years now, both husband and I have ensured that we set aside an amount in our company budget for our professional development. After all, we tell our clients that learning is key to a growth mindset, and we practise what we preach. This budget later grew to include expenses for our attendance at professional conferences, where we found that professional sharing sessions were superior learning experiences that gave us a broader scope of the work we do, and many new learnings that were evolving in the practice.

Therefore, while the $500 SkillsFuture credit is much appreciated, unless it was able to pay for our overseas professional courses or attendance at professional conferences, it was unlikely that either of us would be able to use this credit for our professional development.

But curiosity at what courses the SkillsFuture credits can be used for drove me to consider what else I may wish to learn that I couldn’t already pick up from my usual learning sources like YouTube and the various online interest group sharing sites, which I visit often to learn (in alphabetical order, and by no means exhaustive) baking, calligraphy, children costumes making, cooking, crafting, crochet, cycling, embroidery, essential oil craft, furniture modification, gardening, jewellery craft and beading, painting, photography, sketching, writing, video editing…

So I went to the SkillsFuture website, and took look at their directory to see what courses were available.

There were 11,276 courses listed, provided by a variety of training agencies, that included the People’s Association, which runs the Community Clubs (CC).

Ah, now I was on to something!

However, not all CCs and not all courses were under SkillsFuture@PA.

It was frustrating to navigate the PA website. It was laggy and I gave up searching via the CC nearest my home, and used their search tool to look for “SkillsFuture@PA” instead.

I suppose it wasn’t too farfetched to think that SkillsFuture@PA would only offer courses like “Basic English for Work”, or “Basic Software – Excel”, or “Boost your Confidence at Work”, but then my practical Singaporean-aunty-senses started getting excited at the whole gamut of courses like “Dim Sum Making”, “Basic Clothes Alteration” and “Basic Hairdressing – Cut and Trim”!

I could immediate see how useful these courses would be for anyone looking to pick up a handy skill to help the family save money in the long term. If I took up Basic Hairdressing, my eight-year-old boy would never need to visit a barber for a long time – and he certainly won’t need to pay that premium for cutting his hair at the next Chinese New Year!

But before I got carried away by visions of cutting the hair of my five younger nephews (I doubt my teenager and his teenage cousin would even let me near their crowning glory!), I saw an intriguing course: ”Basic Health Massage for Babies”!

A large number of my friends are mothers of SG50 babies, as is my sister-in-law. My youngest nephew might benefit if his Ah Ko knew how to give him a fantastic baby spa treatment. Thus with the thought of giving my baby nephew a treat, I clicked on the course.

Oh, that PA website is LAGGY!

The page finally comes on screen, with a table of different CCs offering the three-hour course at different timings. There were no courses at the CC nearest to my house, but I was game to travel if the course could be paid with the SF credit.

There was a course scheduled on February 15, 2016, from 9am to 12pm at Clementi CC. Unfortunately, I will be working that day, and won’t be able to make it. The next course was on 26 February 2016, from 7pm to 10pm at Teck Ghee CC.

And how much was the course? It ranged from $10 for seniors above 50 years old, with PAssion Card membership to $30 for those below 49 years old who are not PAssion Card Members.

As a PAssion Card holder, I will be able to sign up for the course for $20, and at this rate, I’d have enough credit to attend 25 such courses! I was itching to explore the other courses like “Basic Hamper/Present Wrapping” and “Basic Tea Appreciation”.

So where do I sign up for Baby Massage?

“Registration for this Class/Activity can only be over the counter. Please approach the organizer for more information.”

What? I can’t register online? I’m only able to register over the counter?

And after all that tedious wait for the PA website to load? (Did I mention how laggy the PA site is?)

Hmm… I’d have to take a cab to Teck Ghee CC just to sign up for the course, but the trip there and back would definitely cost me more than $20, not to mention that with registration, it would take at least 1.5 hours to get the whole registration done.

It could definitely cost less if I took a bus or a train, but that would mean taking more than 2.5 hours to travel and get registered. Besides, this being the pre-Chinese New Year period, I don’t think I could even carve out the time to go down to the CC using the cab option.

Sigh… Perhaps it would be simpler just to spend the time on YouTube learning baby massage techniques.

Or maybe I’ll just stick to looking for any interesting SkillsFuture@PA courses at the CC that is just a 10-minute walk from my house.

Hmm… “Pressed Flower Craft” in May seems interesting.

Maybe I’ll take a detour to the CC to find out more when I walk my son home from school tomorrow afternoon. Better to get smart than stay stumped about my SkillsFuture credits.

Featured image by Natassya Diana.

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