SkillsFuture Course Fee Funding + Absentee Payroll (employer-sponsored training)

SkillsFuture Singapore funds courses in two tiers when an employer sponsors a Singapore Citizen, PR or LTVP+ employee (rates from 31 December 2025):

• Tier 1 (emerging skills, such as SkillsFuture Career Transition Programmes, SkillsFuture Series and courses stacking to IHL qualifications): up to 70% of course fees, or up to 90% for Singapore Citizens aged 40 and above.
• Tier 2 (general upskilling, such as WSQ courses and courses on the Course Approval Skills List): up to 50% of course fees, or up to 70% for Singapore Citizens aged 40 and above.

You enrol your employee directly with an SSG registered training provider and pay only the nett fee plus GST. See the official funding tables.

SMEs get higher subsidies on top of the baseline through Enhanced Training Support for SMEs:

• Up to 90% of course fees for CET Centre courses and CET courses by the Autonomous Universities, Polytechnics, ITE and NIEC
• Up to 70% for certifiable courses run by external training providers
• S$15 per hour for in-house certifiable training

To count as an SME, your organisation must be registered or incorporated in Singapore with not more than 200 employees or annual sales turnover of not more than S$100 million. Sole proprietors, VWOs and societies can qualify. Trainees must be Singapore Citizens, PRs or LTVP+ holders, and the course must be fully paid by the employer.

No application is needed. The subsidy is deducted automatically at registration.

Absentee payroll (AP) funding helps cover manpower costs while your staff are away on SSG-funded training. Current rates from SkillsFuture for Business:

• Flat rate of S$4.50 per hour of attended training
• Cap of S$100,000 per enterprise (UEN) per calendar year
• For Workfare Skills Support trainees: up to 95% of hourly basic salary, capped at S$13 per hour, and the S$100,000 cap does not apply

You are eligible if you make CPF contributions for the employee, the employee is a Singapore Citizen, PR or LTVP+ holder who is fully sponsored, the course is SSG-funded and in the Course Directory for Business, and your organisation is registered in Singapore.

How to claim:

• Tell the training provider you want AP funding. They start the claim after the course ends.
• You receive an email asking you to declare the employee's hourly salary before CPF deduction.
• Log in and submit under the AP Funding tab.
• Approved claims are paid to your corporate PayNow within about two and a half weeks.

AP for training outside working hours is meant to cover overtime pay. To qualify, you need an HR policy that pays overtime for such training hours, and you must actually pay it. An allowance at the rate set by MOM can be used in place of overtime pay.

If an employee attends several courses at the same time, AP is paid for only one period, so only one form of wage compensation is given for the same hours. The annual cap is counted by disbursement date, and in-flight claims also count towards it.

After subsidies, the nett course fee (excluding GST) is an out-of-pocket cost. If you are eligible for the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC), you can offset up to 90% of that expense. Combine course fee funding, ETSS, absentee payroll and SFEC to bring the real cost of training down substantially.

One point to note if you planned to use SFEC alongside enterprise grants. Enterprise Singapore's EDGE FAQ states that for SFEC-supported programmes under EDG, MRA and PSG, employers must submit final claims by 30 November 2026, and that the new EDGE grant will not be supportable under SFEC. SFEC for training courses is a separate track, so check your eligibility on the SFEC page before you plan.