The Business Times
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THINKING ALOUD

Could HR and talent professionals better help individuals tap SkillsFuture credits?

They are in the best position to identify the skills that employees should pick up, and which employers value

Summarise
Lee Su Shyan

Lee Su Shyan

Published Wed, Jan 21, 2026 · 07:00 AM
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    • A SkillsFuture poster at Yishun MRT station, encouraging individuals to take ownership of their own skills development to get themselves future-ready.
    • A SkillsFuture poster at Yishun MRT station, encouraging individuals to take ownership of their own skills development to get themselves future-ready. PHOTO: BT FILE

    ONCE the reminders went out, there was a rush – quite naturally – to use up the S$500 SkillsFuture Credit (SFC) from the 2020 one-off top-up, which were to expire on Dec 31, 2025.

    The surge in attempts to use those credits at the last minute caused intermittent outage of the SkillsFuture online portal, but this was resolved within a day. SkillsFuture Singapore had said that, as at September 2025, about seven in 10 people had not yet used their credits.

    This credit top-up in question was given to Singaporeans aged 25 and above in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is separate from the first tranche of SkillsFuture credits of S$500, which all Singaporeans aged 25 and above received, and which do not expire. 

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