ICDL Asia has signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), the former name was Singapore’s Workforce Development Agency) to align Singapore’s national Employability Skills (ES) ICT modules with ICDL standards. Up to 95% of funding is provided by SSG to the candidates who are citizens and permanent residents of the country. By 2019, more than 40,000 candidates had registered for ICDL programmes.
So far, there are 20 centres offering ICDL programmes across the island state, some of which have set up multiple training and testing sites. 18 ICDL modules are adopted by SSG WSQ Framework and SkillsFuture Approved. The alignment with SSG ES Framework set ICDL as the national standard for digital literacy and opened the gate to all working adults in Singapore to benefit from ICDL programmes. The financial aid from SSG and support from local Community Development Councils enabled the socially disadvantaged group to upgrade themselves, including those who are unemployed, self-employed, low wage workers, or people working at small and medium enterprises which are not able to sponsor employees for ICT training.
According to Loh Gek Khim, Director, Skills Development Division of SSG,
“ICDL is an international standard in end-user computer skills and its certification is widely recognised. The SkillsFuture Singapore Agency will continue to work with partners, such as ICDL, to build the ecosystem of high quality and sustainable training, and to promote a culture of lifelong learning in Singapore”