Usage of Post-Secondary Education Account to cover more courses

SINGAPORE — Students will soon be able to tap their Government-led tertiary education savings account to pay for more courses beyond those subsidised by the Education Ministry (MOE), as well as approved short and modular courses conducted by private training providers.

The Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA) — which helps parents save for their child’s post-secondary education — will also be expanded such that special-needs students may use it to pay for courses offered by SG Enable, an agency dedicated to supporting persons with disabilities.

The MOE, which administers the account, did not say when public application for the expanded account usage will start, other than for courses offered by SG Enable, which begins from February next year. Its spokesperson said that the ministry would be “operationally ready” to support the expanded scheme by the middle of next year.

From April 1 last year to March 31 this year, 232,603 account holders actively used their PSEA, the MOE added.

At the moment, approved courses covered under PSEA include most full-time and part-time full qualification programmes offered by publicly funded post-secondary education institutions, as well as skills-based programmes by the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications CET Centres, and Government-supported special education (Sped) schools. 

Singaporeans enrolled in Sped schools may currently use the account to pay for its programme fees. With the expansion, the account will be open to any special-needs student to pay for training courses under SG Enable.

Announcing the changes on Wednesday (Nov 30) at a gathering of special-needs students under SG Enable’s school-to-work transition programme, Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung said: “Beyond Sped schools, many children and youth with special needs will also, in time, have to pick up skills ... and we have to support you ... (to) gain employment and be independent and contribute to society.”

In other changes to the account scheme, students in mainstream tertiary institutions may use the savings to pay for a course that does not lead to full qualification. These would be approved modular and short courses offered by the Institute of Technical Education, SIM University, polytechnics and autonomous universities. Approved Government-subsidised short and modular courses by arts institutions, public agencies and private training providers will also qualify.

Courses subsidised by other Government agencies, for example, the Diploma in Maritime and Offshore Management which is subsidised by the Maritime and Port Authority, are included in the expanded scheme.

Mr Ong said of such courses: “This is the way learning will become. When we become adults, we learn in bite sizes ... module by module. We don’t study for three years to get full qualifications.”

Sped graduate Muhammad Rizuwan, 20, a retail assistant at NTUC FairPrice, is interested in using the expanded scheme to pick up housekeeping skills, in the hope of working in the hospitality industry: “I like my job now, but hope to learn more so I can do other things.”