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Want to Finally Use Your SkillsFuture Credits? Bear These 3 Things in Mind Before Signing Up for a Course

Want to Finally Use Your SkillsFuture Credits? Bear These 3 Things in Mind Before Signing Up for a Course

Those of you who haven’t used your SkillsFuture credits yet might want to do so soon. Your $500 credit isn’t going to earn interest, and businesses in Singapore tend to hike up their prices fairly often. So don’t wait too long or your credits will be able to buy less.

But given the fact that that there are thousands and thousands of SkillsFuture-approved courses, how can you tell which ones are going to be useful? Which ones are going to actually do something for your career?

Here are three things to bear in mind before signing up for a SkillsFuture-approved course:

1. The course alone will not turn you into an overnight expert

So you’ve looked through the thousands of courses on the SkillsFuture website and have chosen a few skills you’d like to pick up.

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That’s great, but first you must be realistic about the limitations of a $500 course. The course alone is unlikely to turn you into an overnight expert, especially if you’re trying to pick up a complex or technical skill.

That means that to really convert what you’ve learnt into real value in your career, you’re probably going to have to undergo some amount of self-study or training outside of the course.

What’s more, you can go through the motions by enrolling in a course, but if you don’t engage with the material and do any assignments or required reading outside of class, it’s unlikely you’ll master the topics.

So if you’re thinking of signing up for a course you’re too lazy to put real work into, think again.

2. You should know how the skills acquired fit into your career

Your SkillsFuture credits never expire. So if you can’t figure out what skills you need to advance in your career right now, there is no need to embark on a course just because it’s there.

It’s best to sign up for courses in a deliberate manner, already knowing what skills you intend to acquire and what role they will play in your career.

Taking the course is just the first step. After acquiring and honing your new skills, you’ll probably need to partake in some manoeuvring at work or perhaps even look for a new job before you’ll be able to use your new abilities. And none of that can happen if you’re not sure what you want to do with the knowledge you’ve gained in the first place.

So don’t sign up for a course on digital marketing or coding just because you “heard” that it’s something that everyone needs to know. First figure out how you can use these skills in your career.

If you can’t do that, then you might want to consider a different course.

3. You should be interested in the course

Work isn’t exactly all fun and games, but signing up for a course you have zero interest in is not going to help anybody, least of all yourself.

When you sign up for a SkillsFuture course, you’re accountable for how much or how little you learn. If you spend all your time in class fiddling with your smartphone or fail the final exam, nobody is going to care.

Unless you’re just in it for the certificate, pick courses you’re actually interested in so you’ll have a higher chance of being motivated enough to actually learn something useful.

Have you used your SkillsFuture credits yet? Tell us what courses you took in the comments.

The post Want to Finally Use Your SkillsFuture Credits? Bear These 3 Things in Mind Before Signing Up for a Course appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.

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