Five Types of Courses for Media Professionals to Make the Best out of SkillsFuture12 min read
Reading Time: 9 minutesStarted in 2015, SkillsFuture is an initiative that aims to provide Singaporeans and PRs with opportunities to acquire new skills or upgrade their existing skill set through courses and programmes. SkillsFuture credits can be used to subsidise the fees for these courses and programmes.
Everyone aged 25 and above will have received $500 of SkillsFuture credit in their accounts now, with another $500 to come in October 2020 (this will expire in December 2025). If you’re aged 40 to 60, an additional $500 will be topped up for selected reskilling programmes.
SkillsFuture aims to benefit every Singaporean no matter which stage they are in their career. As such, there are a multitude of courses and programmes covering virtually every industry and skillset. The complete list of courses is available here.
To sweeten the deal, parliament announced on 3 March they will set aside $36 million for the Self-Employed Persons (SEP) Training Support Scheme. It will see all freelancers and SEPs paid a training allowance of $7.50 per hour to attend courses under the SkillsFuture Series, as well as selected sector-specific training programmes, over the next three months. There will also not be a cap to how much training SEPs can sign up for.
Of course, it’s easier said than done to invest both precious time and money into such crash courses especially when they don’t solve the immediate issues that have arisen in recent times. However, we hope that this curated list of courses will be able to complement the existing skill set of professionals in the industry – no matter the sector and level of seniority – to make these investments worth it during this down time.
A Few General Takeaways While Compiling This List
Compiling this list of courses wasn’t as easy as it should be, particularly with the directory’s unwieldy search bar. For example, the first few results of a “malay language” search entailed courses relating to coding and programming; searches would have to be specific.
The information provided on each course’s MySkillsFuture page can be unreliable as well. They can be incomplete without course dates or even for courses that have already passed – the most reliable information would have to come from the organisation’s website. While each MySkillsFuture page does provide a link for more information, they are linked to the organisation’s homepage and not its official landing page. And from experience, I found that it was easier to do a Google search for the programme than to navigate the various websites.
Finally, some of the SkillsFuture credit deductible courses do cost quite an amount – at least for me. While these can be padded out by the various government grants and schemes, the costs of these courses makes it important to carefully consider which of them to sign up for.
For the list below, the costs of each course are before GST unless stated otherwise.
Demystify Contract Law
The law is omnipresent in everyday life but its presence is perhaps more deeply felt for the media industry. Whether you are a freelancer or a producer, navigating through contracts with clients is an essential part of work. It doesn’t help that contract law has always been a notoriously difficult and unwieldy subject to understand and negotiate.
While a crash course definitely can’t supplant a degree or years of experience, nor are there courses available specifically tailored for contracts in the media industry, we found one programme that looks to demystify the intricacies of contract law in general.
Contract Law – Understanding the Concepts of A Contract
Brief outline:
The course looks to give an understanding of the principles of contract law, covering frequently used terms and clauses in the drafting of contracts, agreements and joint ventures, and the rules on contract drafting. The course will also go through steps in terminating a contract and the remedies available for breach of contract. Perhaps most importantly, it will also look to share how to conduct businesses effectively within the laws of business and companies.
Organisation: Marketing Institute of Singapore
Cost: $905
Course duration: 2 days
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Pick up Another Language
Picking up another language is always going to be helpful in an ever-shrinking world. Not only would it allow you to better communicate with clients or teammates in their native tongue, a new language also has the potential of opening yourself to new cultures and media to draw inspiration from.
The best part about learning a new language through SkillsFuture is that these courses cost relatively less than others on this list, with the $500 given by the government able to easily cover one or two of such courses.
Conversational Malay
Brief outline:
The course aims to develop participants’ ability to speak and understand conversational Malay. They will learn the basic sentence structure and the basic vocabulary for everyday situations.
Organisation: People’s Association, with courses conducted in 15 community clubs around Singapore
Cost: $75 – $160
Course duration: 10 sessions over 3 months
More information on each Community Club’s respective MySkillsFuture page.
Tamil Language for Adults
Brief outline:
This course teaches adults basic Tamil Language so that they will be able to read and speak basic Tamil in daily situations.
Organisation: People’s Association, with courses conducted in 4 community clubs around Singapore
Cost: $90 – $120
Course duration: 9 sessions over 2 months
More information on each Community Club’s respective MySkillsFuture page.
Conversational Chinese (Beginner 1)
Brief outline:
Through a Chinese course syllabus sourced from a public institution affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education, this course looks to teach basic pronunciation rules, vocabulary and grammar of Chinese.
Organisation: Chinese Edge
Cost: $500
Course duration: 10 sessions over 10 weeks
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Sharpen Business Skills
Despite probably being the most pertinent skill required to survive both the industry and adult life at large, the nitty-gritty of monetary issues – such as bookkeeping and taxes – are usually left untaught back in school.
Again, while there aren’t accounting courses tailored specifically for the media industry, these are brief introductory courses to the sometimes daunting world of business. Whether you are a freelancer, looking to be a business owner or already own one, these should prove to be essential in filling up the blanks film and art schools left out.
Updates and Changes in Income Tax
Brief outline:
The purpose of this programme is to familiarise participants with the recent amendments in Income Tax and their objectives.
Organisation: Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants
Cost: $388
Course duration: 1 day
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Basic Accounting
Brief outline:
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to outline the bookkeeping and accounting principles, appreciate the common bookkeeping jargons, understand the transformation of data from source documents into, income statements and balance sheet, and learn how to prepare a set of account documents.
Organisation: Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS)
Cost: $963 (inclusive of GST)
Course duration: 2 days
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Personal Credit Management
Brief outline:
This course aims to equip individuals with skills to manage their personal credit, or financial advisors/planners to help Singaporeans to make better manage loans, or credit card bills.
Organisation: National University of Singapore
Costs (inclusive of GST)
Singapore Citizens & PRs aged 21 years and above: $321
Singapore Citizens aged 40 years and above (MCES Scheme) $121
Singapore Citizens aged 35 years and above who are not earning more than $2000 per month (WTS Scheme): $71
Course duration: 1 day
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Explore the Lesser-Known Skills of the Industry
There is an abundance of courses that are deductible through MySkillsFuture credits that goes through a wide array of bread-and-butter skills such as Photoshop, camera work and scriptwriting. However, for their costs, these may not be worthwhile investments especially for professionals already well-versed in these skills even if they are meant to be refresher courses.
Here are a few courses that focuses on the lesser-explored and lesser-known skills from the industry to incorporate to your skillset.
Fighting Choreography 1 & 2
Brief outline:
Learn the fundamentals of how to safely create fight sequences using non-contact fight technique. As the course requires you to work in pairs, you must be comfortable with physical contact. Highly recommended for theatre students and those who are keen on stage combat and combat for theatre and film.
Organisation: LASALLE College of the Arts
Cost: $500 (stage combat) / $400 (film combat)
Course duration: 8 sessions over 1 month (stage combat) / 5 sessions over 1 month (film combat)
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Introduction to Stop Motion Animation
Brief outline:
Be introduced to the basics of stop-motion animation which includes Pixilation, 2D Paper Cutout, Claymation and Experimental Mixed Media. Experience the spirit of manual animation film-making through digital processes, which may enhance your sense of on-the-ball problem solving.
Organisation: LASALLE College of the Arts
Cost: $420
Course duration: 5 sessions over 5 days
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Beginner Sewing Class
Brief outline:
The Beginner Sewing Class offers structured and well-paced lessons, providing the perfect environment for students to master basic sewing skills. Guaranteed to provide much guidance and care, our instructors will progressively equip you with the skills to sew basic bags and pouches.
Organisation: Sew Fun
Cost: $620
Course durations
Regular classes: 10 sessions held once a week over 10 weeks or twice a week over 5 weeks
Express classes: 4 sessions held twice a week over 2 weeks
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Explore New Technologies
With the internet prevalent in all aspects of everyday life, it can be difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of technological advancements. These courses offer brief introductions to seemingly daunting – but essential – software and platforms to maximise your reach on the internet.
Creating An Interactive Web Presence for Digital Marketing
Brief outline:
Get essential knowledge and technical skills for creating a basic interactive website. Today we get our information via online and mobile platforms. This trend is on the rise. It is essential to have a good web presence to reach your target audience. You will learn about web design processes and attend practical studio sessions to produce screen-based communication solutions for desktop and mobile devices. At the end of the module, you will produce a simple responsive website to be hosted live on a server.
Organisation: Nanyang Polytechnic
Costs (inclusive of GST)
Singapore Citizens aged below 40 or PR: $144.45
Singapore Citizens aged 40 and above: $54.45
Course duration: 1 day
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Facebook Marketing & Advertising Ad Manager MasterClass
Brief outline:
A Facebook & Instagram Marketing Course for busy entrepreneurs and business owners who would like to understand how they can get more out of their advertising budget on both social media platforms, the mechanics & triggers to get more organic reach on Facebook & Instagram.
Organisation: SKY CRM
Cost: $360
Course duration: 2 days
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Artificial Intelligence for Everyone – A Practical Experience
Brief outline:
Explore the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this one-day introductory workshop. You will learn the What’s and the How’s of AI, and understand how it is not just limited to Hollywood special effects but has also become a part of our everyday life – affecting the way we live, work and play.
Organisation: Republic Polytechnic
Costs (inclusive of GST)
Singapore Citizens aged below 40 or PR: $107.54
Singapore Citizens aged 40 and above: $35.85
Course duration: 1 day
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
Brief outline:
This course gives an introduction to Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). The course will cover the overview on AR & VR hardware, software, business and technical considerations for deployment, and industry development trends. The participants will get to explore AR applications on mobile devices and smart glasses, and find out how these applications are used for training and gaming. A short hands-on session will be included for the participants to develop a simple AR app without coding/ programming
Organisation: Nanyang Polytechnic
Costs (inclusive of GST)
Singapore Citizens below 40 years old and PRs: $83.46
Singapore Citizens above 40 years old: $31.46
Course duration: 1 day
Access the course’s MySkillsFuture page here with the full details of the course available on its official website.
(Banner image credit: SkillsFuture SG Facebook page)
