SkillsFuture portal fully operational again after disruption as S$500 credits near expiry
SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) said it experienced a technical issue with its SkillsFuture Credit system - where individuals submit SkillsFuture Credit claims for courses.
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SINGAPORE: The SkillsFuture portal resumed full operations on Wednesday (Dec 31), a day after experiencing disruption as a one-off S$500 credit top-up was set to expire.
SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) said its SkillsFuture Credit system - where individuals submit SkillsFuture Credit claims for courses - experienced a technical issue at about 5pm on Tuesday.
"This disruption mainly affected the submissions of SkillsFuture Credit claims for online learning subscriptions from providers such as Coursera, edX, NTUC LearningHub Learning eXperience Platform, Gnowbe, and ZilLearn," said SSG in a statement.
It added that those providers were accepting sign-ups for subscriptions before Dec 31, and hence were eligible for the expiring SkillsFuture Credit top-up.
"During the system disruption, SSG worked with these training providers to assure affected individuals that they would be notified as soon as the system was back online," it said.
The technical issue was resolved on Wednesday at 7am, said SSG.
Claims submitted before the system issue, including those for other courses, were not affected.
"SSG is working closely with the five online learning providers to re-process or reinstate the course applications which were incomplete or denied during the downtime," it said.
"Those applicants with expiring SkillsFuture Credit top-up will be able to utilise these credits in time," SSG added, apologising for any inconvenience caused and thanking its users and training partners for their patience and cooperation.
The disruption came as Singaporeans rushed to use their one-off S$500 SkillsFuture credit top-up before it expires on Dec 31, with training providers reporting last week that demand has jumped sharply - in some cases by as much as seven times.
As of September, about seven in 10 eligible Singaporeans had not used their SkillsFuture credit top-up.
The SkillsFuture credit top-up was given to Singaporeans aged 25 and above in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is separate from the first tranche of SkillsFuture credit of S$500, which all Singaporeans aged 25 and above received and which will not expire.
Singaporeans aged 40 and above also get a mid-career training allowance of S$4,000 in SkillsFuture credit that does not expire.
SkillsFuture credit can be used to offset fees for eligible courses on the MySkillsFuture online portal.
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