SINGAPORE — Seniors aged 50 and above who are keen on self-improvement can now sign up for more than 500 courses through the National Silver Academy (NSA), which offers subsidised short courses on home maintenance and financial planning to “exam-free” modules at Institutes of Technical Education, polytechnics and publicly funded universities. The courses cover topics like IT, media, health, business and the arts, and they are also offered at community-based organisations.

Classes are set to start in June, and there are more than 10,000 places available this year, the Health and Education Ministries said in a joint press release yesterday. Seniors may use their SkillsFuture Credit to pay the out-of-pocket course fees for most courses under the academy.

For short courses offered by post-secondary education institutions, eligible seniors can expect to pay up to S$300 per course on average, after a 50 per cent subsidy on fees. They may also opt for “exam-free” modules from certified courses at higher education institutions, where they attend classes with the schools’ students, and token fees range from under S$100 to S$250.

For the Intergenerational Learning Programme and other ad-hoc courses, seniors would usually be paired with students to learn topics such as social media and music.