Can I Use Skillfuture Credit for Driving License? SkillsFuture is a government scheme that helps professionals residing in Singapore to upgrade their skills. This is a wonderful idea that will contribute to increasing the number of highly-qualified workforce in the city-state.
It will help even people, who can’t afford an upgrading course, to benefit from it and boost their competencies. By partially or fully covering the course cost, SkillsFuture ensures that all Singapore citizens can move up their career ladder.
It gives chance to everyone to become better in what they do, but also take other courses for self-development.
The scheme focuses on people who are above 25 years of age. They receive a S$ 500 credit for continuing their studies or taking short courses for improving their skills. The platform allows for thousands of courses in a wide variety of fields.
It’s car mechanics, banking, cooking, computer engineering, business management and many more. There are also self-development courses that not necessarily relate to a professional realm.
The participants may choose the course just because it seems interesting to them. After all, it helps them broaden their horizons and learn skills in a new field.
In spite of covering the costs of lots of courses, SkillsFuture has not reached yet the driving school. At least, this training does not make up the list of available courses that Workforce Singapore Agency provides.
So having this in mind, most probably you can’t use the credit to cover your driving license courses. However, there is good news too. The credit applies to vocational license courses.
In other words, if you have already a driver’s license, you can use SkillsFuture money to pay for taxi driver vocational training. In fact, you have to choose between two courses: Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence and Private Hire Car Vocational Licence.
If you have TDVL, you can drive both a taxi and a private hire car.
However, if you own only PHCVL, you must take a TDVL course to get permission to work as a taxi driver. So, to receive more mobility on the labor market, you may want to go straight to a Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence.
Since there are more rules the driver has to follow in this job, the course tends to be more expensive. But, keeping in mind that SkillsFuture credit partially covers the training cost, you don’t have to pass up this opportunity.
TDVL applicants have to be 30 years old or more and have a class 3 driving licence. They also must be Singapore citizen, provide a medical check-up certificate and speak English.
In fact, considering that Singapore is a multinational country and there are many foreigners as well, without English is impossible. The taxi driver’s licence applicants must speak this language fluently, if they want to get a job.
That’s why they need to provide a proficiency certificate that proves their English skills. Once they get the green light to attend the course, they have to comply with a set of rules.
They have to be in proper clothes that include: a shirt with collar, long pants, and covered shoes. They have to dress like this not only during the theory class but also during the driving test. The participants must also arrive 15 minutes before a class or an exam starts.
The teachers will deny you access if you are late or wear inappropriate clothes. The entire course will last 25 hours. At the end of these 25 hours and upon successfully passing the tests, you will receive a taxi driver’s vocational license.
It proves your taxi driver competencies and allows you to search for a job on this position.
To conclude, SkillsFuture credit covers the costs of a big number of upgrading courses. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cover yet the cost of the driving school. However, if you already have a driver’s license, you can apply for a taxi driver’s course using the SkillsFuture scheme.
The course has 25 hours and teaches you the vocation of taxi and private hire car driver. Before applying, you have to make sure you have a class 3 driver’s license, a medical report, and an English proficiency certificate.