National Silver Academy

Active agers of ages 50-year-old and above can now sign up for more than 500 courses.

For those who are keen on self-improvement, you can now sign up for more than 500 subsidised short courses that range from topics such as media, health, business and the arts at places such as community-based organisations, the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), polytechnics and publicly funded universities through the National Silver Academy (NSA).

Classes will commence in June 2016, with more than 10,000 places available, also active agers are able to use their SkillsFuture Credit to pay for most of the courses.

The NSA will offer three types of learning opportunities for active agers:

Subsidised short courses

A wide range of subsidised short courses, ranging from three to 45 hours, will be made available to seniors. These courses provide opportunities for skills upgrading for the workplace; and equip active agers with life skills such as home maintenance, financial planning for retirement and general knowledge on how to age well.

Eligible active agers will receive subsidies of up to 50% of course fees for short courses offered by the post-secondary education institutions (PSEIs). Course fees post-subsidy range from around S$200 to S$300 per course on average. In addition, community-based organisations, with government support, have developed short courses with affordable course fees at S$50 to S$150 on average, post-subsidy.

“Exam-free” modules

ITE, polytechnics and publicly-funded universities will open up selected modules from certificate, diploma, post-diploma and full degree programmes to active agers, without the need for formal assessment, at a token fee. Active agers can attend these classes together with regular, younger students attending the same modules. At ITE and polytechnics, the token fee is typically under S$100. At the publicly-funded universities, the token fee is typically between S$100 and S$250.

Other learning opportunities

The NSA will also offer the Intergenerational Learning Programme (ILP) and other ad-hoc learning opportunities such as talks and seminars organised by the community-based organisations. Led by the Council for Third Age and facilitated by the community-based organisations, the ILP aims to promote inter-generational bonding by pairing students with active agers to learn about topics such as public speaking, social media and music.

Visit the NSA website to find out more about the course providers.

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