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What is SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC)?

• SFEC aims to encourage employers to undertake enterprise and workforce transformation initiatives. It provides additional support, over and above the existing schemes, to eligible employers for their enterprise and workforce transformation efforts.
• The SFEC scheme was announced in Budget 2020 and expanded to a larger group of employers in Budget 2022. In Budget 2024, the validity of the SFEC for all employers will be extended by 1 year till 30 June 2025.

What is the support level for SFEC?

• Eligible employers receive a one-off credit of up to $10,000 per entity to cover up to 90% of out-of-pocket expenses (refer to Q5 for illustration) on qualifying costs for enterprise transformation programmes and workforce transformation programmes.
  • Enterprise Transformation (up to $7,000 only) – Schemes by various agencies hosted on the Business Grant Portal (BGP); and/or
  • Workforce Transformation (up to the full $10,000) – Training courses aligned to the various Industry Skills Frameworks by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), Job redesign initiatives, and Career Conversion Programmes etc. by Workforce Singapore (WSG)

What are the criteria that employers must meet to be eligible for SFEC?
The qualifying periods and their respective eligibility criteria are shown in the table below:

 

• 	Qualifying Period(s)	Eligibility Criteria
  SFEC (Budget 2020)	1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020 1 July 2019 – 30 June 2020 1 October 2019 – 30 September 2020 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2020	Employers must meet the following conditions over any of the qualifying periods: Have contributed at least $750 Skills Development Levy (SDL) over a qualifying period; and Have employed at least three Singapore Citizens (SCs) or Permanent Residents (PRs)* every month over the same qualifying period; and Have not been qualified at any of the earlier periods. All employers have already been qualified and notified. *Refers to all Singaporean or Singapore PR employees drawing a salary and with CPF contribution
  SFEC Expansion (Budget 2022)	1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021	Employers must meet the following conditions over the qualifying period: Have employed at least three Singapore Citizens (SCs) or Permanent Residents (PRs)* every month over the qualifying period; and Have not been previously qualified for SFEC; and Are not in default of their SDL contributions during the qualifying period and do not have an inactive ACRA status during the qualification process. All qualified employers have been notified in April 2022. *Refers to all Singaporean or Singapore PR employees drawing a salary and with CPF contribution

Note:

• Employers qualified under SFEC (Budget 2020) can only use their SFEC on supportable schemes applied from 1 April 2020 or training courses that commenced from 1 April 2020.
• Employers qualified under SFEC Expansion (Budget 2022) can only use their SFEC on supportable schemes applied from 1 April 2022 or training courses that commenced from 1 April 2022.

How can I access the list of SFEC-supportable programmes and SFEC-eligible training courses?

• To access the list of SFEC-supportable programmes, please visit Enterprise Singapore's website and SkillsFuture for Business page. Please refer to Annex A (attached in this FAQ) for the list or scan the QR codes (1) and (3) found in Annex A to access the websites.
• To access the list of SFEC-eligible training courses, please visit SkillsFuture Singapore’s course listing. Please check this list for updated course information to verify that the course is eligible for SFEC before course enrolment.
• Employers will have to meet the eligibility criteria of the respective SFEC-supportable programmes before they can draw down the Credit.

How can an eligible employer benefit from SFEC?

• The employer decides to send an employee for an approved SFEC-eligible training course¹ under the Workforce Transformation programme.
  
   

  Full Fee of Training Course:	$1,000
  SSG Course Fee Subsidy (90%): (for Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents)	$900
  Out-of-pocket Expense incurred by employer:	$100
  SFEC Disbursement (90% of the out-of-pocket expense):	$90

  
  This is a simplified computation which does not take into account any GST component, which is not supportable.
  
   

• The same employer also decides to enhance its productivity through automation and applies for the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) under the Enterprise Transformation programme.
  
   

  Qualified Cost of Equipment:	$35,000
  Claim Approved Amount (based on qualifying costs & supported at 70%*):	$24,500
  Out-of-Pocket Expense (incurred by employer):	$10,500
  SFEC Disbursement (90% of out-of-pocket expense, capped at $7,000)	$7,000*

  
  *SFEC funding for ‘Enterprise Transformation’ programmes is capped to $7,000.
  
   

• This employer has utilised a total of $7,090 SFEC and has a credit balance of $2,910. As the cap for Enterprise Transformation programmes has been reached, this balance can be used on Workforce Transformation programmes. The employer has up to 30 June 2025 to do so.

¹ For SFEC-eligible training courses, note that payment has to be paid by, and invoiced to the employer, and not the employee.

 

• Why is there a $7,000 cap on SFEC utilisation for Enterprise Transformation programmes?
  To encourage employers to embark on both Enterprise and Workforce Transformation programmes in tandem, $3,000 of SFEC was ringfenced for Workforce Transformation programmes.

What is the SFEC Expansion 2022?

• In Budget 2022, the coverage of SFEC was expanded through a one-off adjustment to the eligibility criteria. For the expansion, the requirement of a minimum employer contribution to Skills Development Levy (SDL) over the qualifying period was removed, thus allowing more employers to benefit from the $10,000 SFEC per entity*.
• In addition, the deadline to claim the credit for all employers (including those which were qualified previously) will be extended from 30 June 2023 to 30 June 2024. **

*For the earlier qualifying periods, employers had to fulfil a requirement of contributing at least $750 in SDL over a qualifying period.

**In Budget 2024, the deadline to claim the credit for all employers (including those which were qualified previously) will be extended from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025.


Why is there a SFEC Expansion?

• The coverage of SFEC was expanded to encourage more enterprises to take up transformation initiatives as employers emerge from the pandemic. In particular, the one-off removal of the SDL requirement* will benefit mainly smaller entities which do not employ many employees.
• The extension of the deadline to claim the credit will give employers more time to plan and embark on transformation initiatives.

* For the earlier qualifying periods, employers had to fulfil a requirement of contributing at least $750 in SDL over a qualifying period.


Who will qualify under the SFEC Expansion?
Employers must meet the following conditions over the qualifying period (1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021):

1. Have employed at least three Singapore Citizens (SCs) or Permanent Residents (PRs) every month over the qualifying period; and
2. Have not been previously qualified for SFEC; and
3. Are not in default of their SDL contributions during the qualifying period and do not have an inactive ACRA status during the qualification process.

Will employers who have previously qualified for SFEC receive a top-up to their SFEC?
No, there will not be a top-up for employers that have previously qualified for SFEC.

How will I know if I qualify for the SFEC Expansion?

• All newly SFEC-eligible employers have been notified by EnterpriseSG via email sent to their registered Corppass Administrators in April 2022.
• Employers who qualified will be able to see the $10,000 credit, when they log in to the Business Grants Portal (BGP) and SkillsFuture for Business page in April 2022.

I have qualified under the SFEC Expansion. When can I start using my SFEC?

• Newly qualified employers under the SFEC Expansion can only use their SFEC on supportable schemes applied from 1 April 2022 or training courses that commenced from 1 April 2022.
• Please refer to Annex A for the list of supportable programmes. The list of supportable programmes is updated from time to time, to reflect new programmes on board SFEC.

Why are employers who have defaulted on their SDL payments excluded from benefiting from the SFEC?
SDL is a mandatory contribution by employers, as stipulated in the Skills Development Levy Act (Chapter 306) and it also constitutes the employers’ fair share of contribution towards skills development. As such, employers who default on their SDL payments are excluded from SFEC.

Why do employers need to fulfil the 3 Singapore Citizens (SCs) / Permanent Residents (PRs) requirement?
The requirement to have a minimum of three SC/PR employees is to ensure that entities have a minimum scale of operations to benefit meaningfully from transformation and to allow local employees to benefit from the scheme.