Last updated 5 October 2026 — by Adrian Tan, SDM. Marketing guidance, not legal advice. The rules below come from the training-provider terms published on TPGateway; confirm anything campaign-critical with the Skills and Workforce Development Agency before you launch.
Most advertising rules in Singapore tell you what an ad may say. The rules for SkillsFuture courses go further: since 1 December 2025 they also say who may publish it. A registered training provider can still hire an agency to write the campaign, design the landing page and plan the media calendar. What it can no longer do, without written permission, is let that agency, an affiliate or a lead-generation vendor approach learners or publish claims about its courses — online, in print or in person.
That change sits on top of an older rulebook that already bans the word “free”, the SkillsFuture logo, referral rewards and lucky draws, and dictates exactly how course fees must appear in an ad. The rulebook is contractual rather than statutory: it lives in the Terms for Training Providers that every registered training provider signs. But the agency enforcing it can suspend or terminate a provider “forthwith”, and since 2023 a false or misleading course ad has also been a criminal offence. This guide sets out what the rules say, how they have been enforced, and how to run a compliant campaign for an SFC-eligible course.
Who sets the rules now
On 1 July 2026, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore merged into a single statutory board, the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA). The Ministry of Manpower announced its inaugural board on 24 June 2026. The SkillsFuture schemes themselves — SkillsFuture Credit, Level-Up and the rest — keep their names.
The marketing rules have carried over. The training-provider FAQ on TPGateway now reads, in SWDA’s name, that providers “shall not use any logo belonging to SWDA, or any SkillsFuture logo”. The detailed rulebook is still the SkillsFuture Singapore Agency Terms for Training Providers, in the version dated 2 October 2025. Its Appendix A, headed “Marketing Guidelines”, runs to 21 paragraphs. Two clauses in the main body matter as much: clause 3.4A (the third-party ban) and clause 17.15 (discounts and referrals).
These rules bind registered training providers — organisations whose courses SSG (now SWDA) funds or lists as eligible for SkillsFuture Credit. A provider that is also a private education institution has a second, separate set of advertising rules under the Private Education Act, which we cover in our guide to private education advertising rules in Singapore. The two regimes differ on one point that catches people out. A private education institution may advertise an incentive if it states the full terms. A registered training provider may not offer one at all.
The 1 December 2025 ban: your agency can write the campaign but not run it
Clause 3.4A says a registered training provider must not “engage, request or procure any third party (whether as your agent, representative, contractor or otherwise)” to promote, advertise or market its courses, or to “make or publish any representation” about them, without SSG’s prior written permission. Permission can be revoked.
Information Memorandum QMD/2025/5, issued on 8 October 2025 and effective from 1 December 2025, explains where the line falls. Two lists set it out.
| A third party may still… | A third party may no longer… |
|---|---|
| Develop marketing propositions, messaging and campaigns | Approach individuals face to face (roadshows, booths, street sign-ups) |
| Plan marketing schedules and events | Approach individuals by phone, WhatsApp or Telegram |
| Do creative and content development, including website design | Approach individuals through “digital means (such as websites, social media platforms, etc)” |
| — | Make or publish any representation about the courses, online, in print or in person |
SkillsFuture Queen Bees and Skills Development Partners are exempt. Everyone else needs prior approval, which SSG decides case by case at its “sole discretion”. The sanction for a breach is suspension or termination of the provider’s registered status.
The open question: who presses “publish”?
The memorandum does not say whether an agency that operates ad campaigns inside the provider’s own Meta or Google Ads account is “publishing representations”. On a literal reading, an agency building and launching the ads is doing more than “creative and content development”. Until SWDA says otherwise, the cautious set-up is this: the provider owns the ad accounts, its own staff approve and launch every ad, and the agency’s role is documented as strategy, creative and analysis. If you want the agency to operate campaigns end to end, ask SWDA for written permission and keep the reply on file.
The ban also ends a common lead-generation model in this sector: affiliates who run their own pages promising “free courses with your SkillsFuture Credit” and pass leads to several providers. Those affiliates are approaching individuals through digital means and publishing representations, which is exactly what QMD/2025/5 lists.
The words and marks you cannot use
Appendix A bans several phrases outright. Note that most of them also catch words “of similar import”, so a creative rewording does not get around them.
| Do not say | Rule | Say instead |
|---|---|---|
| “SkillsFuture Approved” | Para 2 | “SFC-eligible” |
| Any SSG, SWDA or SkillsFuture logo | Para 1 | Plain text: “SFC-eligible” |
| “Free”, “paid by the government”, “paid by SSG” | Para 10 | State the full fee and the nett fee |
| “Funded” (unless an SSG-Funded Course) | Para 3 | Only where the course genuinely is SSG-funded |
| “Accredited” (unless it has Accredited Course Status) | Para 3 | Only where that status exists |
| “No assessment required” | Para 14 | Do not mention assessment as a selling point |
| “Guaranteed success”, “most demanded course in Singapore” | Para 17 | Specific, provable claims |
| “We will get you a job” | Para 18 | Describe the skills taught |
Two of these surprise most marketers. The first is that a course fully covered by a learner’s SkillsFuture Credit still cannot be called “free”. The credit is the learner’s own money, and the 2022 public consultation on the SSG Act amendments gave “falsely indicating that a course was free when the fee would need to be borne by individuals’ SkillsFuture Credit” as its example of false advertising. The second is paragraph 14: you may not say a course needs no assessment “even if this is true”. The guideline treats the absence of assessment as a lure for people who want the credit spent rather than the skill learned.
Paragraph 9 adds a subtler rule: an ad must not suggest that SkillsFuture Credit can only be used with particular providers or courses. “Use your SFC here before it’s gone” fails twice — once on exclusivity and once on the expiry hard-sell discussed below.
Paragraph 4 offers one pre-approved sentence that providers may use, which begins “All Singaporeans aged 25 and above can use their $500 SkillsFuture Credit…”. Using SSG’s own wording is the safest way to mention the scheme at all.
What every SFC course ad must show
Paragraph 5 is the rule that breaks most ad formats. Every advertisement must show:
- the provider’s registered name and UEN;
- the SSG-approved course title and course reference number;
- the approved course duration;
- the full course fee before any subsidy or SkillsFuture Credit;
- the nett fee after subsidies — and the nett fee must not deduct SkillsFuture Credit;
- a fee breakdown and any discounts;
- the validity period of the subsidy; and
- the training mode (classroom, online, blended).
Nobody can fit that into a 125-character Meta primary text or a 30-character Google headline. Paragraph 6 is the way through: the requirement is met if the ad carries a working link or QR code to the course’s page on MySkillsFuture. For digital ads, make the MySkillsFuture page the destination or include its link in the ad, and keep the provider’s UEN visible on the landing page. For print and out-of-home, use a QR code that resolves to the MySkillsFuture listing, not to your own sales page.
The rule on SFC and the nett fee deserves a worked example. Suppose a course has a full fee of $1,200, and a 70% subsidy brings the nett fee to $360. The ad may show $1,200 and $360. It may not show “$0 after SkillsFuture Credit” or “only $0 out of pocket”, even for a learner whose credit balance covers the $360. How much credit a learner has left is their business, not part of your headline price.
No referrals, lucky draws, gifts or vouchers
Paragraph 11 bans referral rewards, lucky draws, gifts, vouchers and “similar means” to secure sign-ups, unless SSG has given written permission. Clause 17.15(ii) separately bans referral rewards in the main body of the Terms. Paragraph 12 bans referring to SSG incentives to attract trainees.
This is stricter than the general law. Outside SkillsFuture, a lucky draw tied to a purchase is lawful if it stays within the Gambling Control Act’s exemptions (see our guide to lucky draw rules in Singapore), and a referral scheme is lawful if it is disclosed properly (see referral programme rules in Singapore). For an SFC-eligible course, neither is available without SWDA’s written permission.
Discounts are allowed, but clause 17.15 controls how. A discount must not be structured around the trainee’s eligibility for SSG funding. It must be keyed into TPGateway and shown on the invoice. Bulk, early-bird and membership discounts all count as discounts for this purpose. In practice that means “20% off for early birds” is acceptable if it is a real, recorded discount on the fee; “$100 cash back when you pay with SkillsFuture Credit” is not.
Selling around the credit: timing, expiry and testimonials
SSG Circular QMD/2025/3, issued on 31 July 2025, was a reminder of good practice. It told providers not to open a conversation by asking about the learner’s SkillsFuture Credit, or by stressing that a credit tranche is about to expire. Raise SFC only after the learner has shown interest in enrolling. Point learners to course quality scores rather than to their credit balance.
In a parliamentary reply on 6 November 2025, the Ministry of Education quoted SSG’s reminder that providers must “not use the expiry of the SkillsFuture Credits to hard-sell”. For campaign planning, that rules out a whole genre of seasonal creative: countdown banners and “use it or lose it” emails aimed at the date a top-up lapses.
Several other paragraphs of Appendix A shape day-to-day content:
- Testimonials (para 16). No fictitious testimonials. Each testimonial must give the trainee’s name, their relationship to the provider and the year. The provider must give SSG the trainee’s contact details on request, and that duty survives termination of the contract. Under the PDPA, collect consent for this use when you collect the testimonial; our guide to PDPA rules for marketing and tracking covers the consent mechanics.
- Quality scores (para 15). No misleading use of TRAQOM survey information — for example, quoting one course’s score as if it applied to the provider’s whole catalogue.
- Substantiation (para 20). Any claim must be backed up within 14 calendar days of a request.
- Annoyance (para 21). No marketing likely to cause annoyance, or that may breach section 32 of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act. Cold calls also engage the Do Not Call rules in our guide to telemarketing rules in Singapore.
- Login details (para 13). Never ask a learner for their Singpass ID or password — not even “to help them submit the claim”.
- Accountability (para 8). The provider is accountable for every advertisement, including ads published by third parties on its behalf.
How the rules have been enforced
The Ministry of Education confirmed in its November 2025 reply that SSG publicly names providers it penalises, and the press has reported several cases.
| Provider | What happened | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| FirstCom Academy | Ran a referral programme; investigated by SSG from early 2024 | Suspended 1 January to 31 March 2025; courses starting in that window lost subsidies and SFC eligibility; two WSQ courses discontinued |
| Acctrain Academy | Failed to supervise third-party marketers, at least one of whom paid cash to learners | Contract terminated 30 September 2025 |
| Two further providers | Marketing malpractice | Warned |
According to reports by AsiaOne and Marketing-Interactive in October 2025, SSG received 15 complaints about undesirable marketing in 2024 and 21 in January to August 2025. Separately, it terminated the contracts of nine providers for quality failures in 2024 and ten in 2025.
The Acctrain case is the one agencies should study. The provider was not punished for anything it published itself. It lost its contract because it did not control what its marketers did. That is the logic of paragraph 8, and it is why clause 3.4A followed two months later.
Clause 13.1 gives SWDA wide termination rights. It can terminate the contract, or suspend or vary a provider’s or a course’s status, “forthwith” for any breach of the contract, a police report, a complaint to CASE, or conduct that in its sole opinion is prejudicial to it. There is no requirement to prove harm to a learner first.
When course marketing becomes a crime
Most breaches of Appendix A are contract breaches. Some marketing is also criminal. The amendments to the SSG Act announced by the Ministry of Education on 10 January 2023 created these offences:
| Conduct | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|
| Publishing a false or misleading advertisement about a course or provider | $5,000 fine, 6 months’ jail, or both |
| Ignoring a direction to remove or correct an advertisement | $10,000 fine, 12 months’ jail, or both, plus up to $1,000 a day |
| Entering into an abusive funding arrangement | A penalty equal to the amount wrongly obtained, plus up to $10,000, 3 years’ jail, or both |
| Making a false statement | $10,000 fine, 12 months’ jail, or both; the court can order repayment |
The 2022 consultation behind those amendments proposed that the advertising offence should reach marketing agents even if they receive no SSG funding themselves. That is the point agencies tend to miss: the criminal offence attaches to whoever publishes the false ad, not only to the provider. The SSG Act was replaced when SWDA was formed on 1 July 2026. According to the Bill as introduced in April 2026, the advertising offence carries over at the same penalty level; we could not read the enacted section numbers on Singapore Statutes Online at the time of writing, so check the current text before you cite it.
The background explains the severity. Between April and October 2017, a syndicate used nine dormant entities, three of them posing as training providers, to file 8,381 grant applications for 25,141 fictitious trainees, claiming about $39.9 million for training that never took place. The ringleaders received prison sentences of up to 17 years. The 2023 amendments, and the funding-arrangement offence in particular, were written with that case in mind.
Ordinary consumer law still applies on top. The Trade Descriptions Act and the CPFTA both reach false claims about price benefits and free items.
Marketing to mid-career learners
The largest pool of SkillsFuture money today is aimed at Singaporeans aged 40 and over:
- SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career): a $4,000 top-up from 1 May 2024. It does not expire and can only be used on a curated list of about 7,000 courses.
- Mid-Career Training Allowance: from early 2025, 50% of the learner’s average income, capped at $3,000 a month, for up to 24 months over a lifetime, for eligible full-time courses.
- Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy: up to 90% of course fees on SSG-supported courses.
Every rule above applies to campaigns aimed at this group. Some extra care helps. Because the mid-career credit does not expire, “use it before it’s gone” is not just a banned hard-sell but also false. Check that a course is actually on the mid-career list before an ad implies the $4,000 can be used on it. And present the training allowance as the learner’s entitlement under a government scheme, not as something your institution pays.
The claim mechanics matter for landing pages and follow-up. The TPGateway FAQ says SkillsFuture Credit can only be used for courses listed on MySkillsFuture that are open to the public and use a nett-fee model. Corporate or employer-sponsored runs are excluded. The learner submits their own claim within 60 days before the course starts. SFC cannot be used for withdrawal or administrative fees, and providers may not collect a deposit for the portion SFC will cover.
A compliant SFC course campaign, step by step
- Settle the operating model first. Does your agency only produce strategy and creative, or will it launch ads and run outreach? If the second, get SWDA’s written permission before 1 December rules are tested on you. Keep ad accounts and lead forms in the provider’s name.
- Audit every affiliate and reseller. Any partner running its own pages about your courses is approaching learners through digital means. Stop them, or get permission.
- Use the MySkillsFuture link as the fee disclosure. Make it the destination of digital ads, or carry it in the ad; use a QR code that points to it in print.
- Run a word check. Search every asset for “free”, “approved”, “funded”, “accredited”, “no exam”, “guaranteed”, “job” and the SkillsFuture logo.
- Remove SFC from the headline price. Show the full fee and the nett fee after subsidy, never a price after credit.
- Strip incentives. No referral rewards, lucky draws, gifts or vouchers. Keep discounts genuine, recorded in TPGateway and shown on invoices.
- Rebuild nurture sequences. No opening question about credit balances, no expiry countdowns. Mention SFC only after the learner shows interest.
- Document testimonials. Name, relationship and year on each, with consent records you can produce on request.
- Keep a substantiation file. Every claim, with its evidence, retrievable within 14 days.
- Measure without overstepping. Track enquiries and enrolments by channel so you can show which in-house channels work, which our guide to digital marketing for education providers in Singapore covers in more depth.
Frequently asked questions
Can I advertise my course as “free with SkillsFuture Credit”?
No. Paragraph 10 of the marketing guidelines bans describing a course as “free”, “paid by the government” or “paid by SSG”, or anything with a similar meaning. SkillsFuture Credit is the learner’s own entitlement, so the ad must show the full fee and the nett fee after subsidies, without deducting the credit.
Can a marketing agency still run ads for a SkillsFuture-registered training provider?
An agency can still develop messaging, campaigns, creative and websites. Since 1 December 2025, it may not approach learners or publish representations about the courses, online or offline, unless SWDA has given the provider written permission. Whether operating ads inside the provider’s own account counts is not settled, so ask SWDA before relying on it.
Can I use the SkillsFuture logo or say “SkillsFuture Approved”?
No. Training providers may not use any SWDA, SSG or SkillsFuture logo in advertising, and “SkillsFuture Approved” is banned. The permitted descriptor is “SFC-eligible”.
Are referral rewards, lucky draws or early-bird discounts allowed?
Referral rewards, lucky draws, gifts and vouchers are not allowed without SWDA’s written permission. Genuine discounts, including early-bird and bulk discounts, are allowed if they are not tied to funding eligibility, are keyed into TPGateway and appear on the invoice.
What happens if a training provider breaches the marketing guidelines?
SWDA can warn the provider, suspend it, or terminate its contract immediately. Suspended providers’ courses lose subsidies and SkillsFuture Credit eligibility. A false or misleading course advertisement is also a criminal offence, with a maximum fine of $5,000, six months’ jail, or both.
Who can use the $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career)?
Singaporeans aged 40 and over. It was introduced on 1 May 2024, does not expire, and can only be used on a curated list of about 7,000 courses, so check a course is on that list before your ad mentions it.
The takeaway
Marketing an SFC-eligible course in Singapore now has two layers of rules. The first governs content: no “free”, no logo, no “SkillsFuture Approved”, the full and nett fees without the credit deducted, and no referral rewards, lucky draws or gifts. The second, since 1 December 2025, governs who does the marketing: agencies and affiliates may build the campaign, but approaching learners and publishing claims belongs to the provider unless SWDA agrees otherwise. Both are enforced through a contract that can be terminated overnight, with a criminal offence behind them.
If you run a training business and want campaigns designed to fit these rules from the first brief, that is the kind of work our performance marketing team in Singapore does, with the provider holding the accounts; see our client case studies. For the wider picture, start with our complete guide to performance marketing in Singapore.
