SINGAPORE — Admissions to the new College of Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will take into account a person’s working experience, apart from the relevant academic background.

And while courses can be delivered online, the university is also looking at facilities near the city, for face-to-face classroom time, to better cater for working adults.

“What we’re doing here is that we’re trying to open more opportunities for people to upgrade, so we will not be using the regular admission criteria,” said Professor Kam Chan Hin, NTU’s senior associate provost of undergraduate education.

“And on that basis, we open the door wider,” he added. “We hope to try to make it more accessible by holding some classes not at NTU’s campus itself, but also in our campus in one-north, for example, and later on in our Novena campus.”

NTU is partnering the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to support workers, especially professionals, managers, executives and technicians, to upgrade their skills. Under the partnership, PaCE College will offer 28 undergraduate-level courses for part-time study, starting from August.

NTU said the courses will span 13 weeks each, and will be for growth sectors such as data analytics and digital electronics.

At the May Day Rally on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said S$200 million will be injected into the NTUC-Education and Training Fund to support the initiative, with the Government matching S$3 — up to S$150 million — for every dollar that the labour movement raises.