Everything About the FirstCom Academy Three-Month Suspension You Should Know

By
Champa Ha
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Planning to upgrade your skills in 2025? If you were planning to do so with a SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) course, your plans would probably be put on a dampener if the course had been from FirstCom Academy.

The adult learning provider has been suspended for not complying with guidelines as given by SkillsFuture Singapore.

The company, which focuses on multiple short Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ), had courses that ranged from digital content creation to people management.

FirstCom Academy will be suspended from 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2025, over “concerns relating to use of a referral programme for marketing, which is non-compliant with SSG’s terms for training providers”.

During the suspension period, the company, which operates out of four training centres at Paya Lebar, Woodlands, Chinatown and Tiong Bahru, will not be able to start any WSQ courses.

Funding subsidies for all the courses that were to start during period will also be suspended and the courses would not be eligible for any government course fee subsidies or SkillsFuture Credit usage.

A statement released by SSG on Wednesday 27 Nov has shared that the agency has been looking into the marketing practices and course quality that FirstCom Academy had been providing since 2024, after “numerous public feedback.”

They will also be terminating two of FirstCom Academy’s Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) courses, citing lapses in ensuring course quality.

Those who have already started their courses before the time period of Jan 2025 will not be affected by this stipulation, even if the course will only conclude during the time period.

Those whose courses have not started but have decided to not continue with FirstCom Academy can contact the academy to make alternative arrangements. They may also approach SSG to obtain a list of courses that may be similar to what they were hoping to learn from FirstCom, offered by other SSG-registered training providers.

FirstCom Academy has the responsibility to inform any affected learners that should they take up any courses during the time period, they would not be receiving any funding subsidy for their courses, nor will they be able to attain the WSQ Statement of attainment, awarded upon completion of each WSQ course.

“FirstCom Academy should take this time to improve the practices and standards of their marketing processes and course delivery,” said SSG. (It’s the equivalent of ‘go stand in the corner and think of what you did’.)

The agency also added that any training provider found to be engaging or have engaged in marketing misconduct will be penalised. This will range from advisories or warning letters, to suspension and termination.

SSG has taken already taken action against two other training providers for non-compliance with SSG’s marketing guidelines earlier this year.

FirstCom Academy, in response to the news, has put up an announcement on their website and social media platforms.

“To provide a better learning experience, our WSQ course curriculum will be undergoing an improvement process in Q1 2025. Please note that there will be no WSQ courses and course funding available during this period (Jan 1 to Mar 31),” it said.

What Happened?

Some of the feedback from members of the public included concerns about some of the hard-selling tactics used by FirstCom Academy in enrolling participants.

This included being misinformed by promoters from FirstCom Academy that their SkillsFuture Credit would expire soon. Only the one-off SkillsFuture Credit top-up of $500 provided in 2020 would expire on 31 Dec2025, and the original $500 opening SkillsFuture Credit does not.

Other measures the company would take include offering incentives such as shopping vouchers to take their courses. Other forms of incentives would occur at the end of courses to get $5 vouchers to get good reviews on Google, or a free umbrella worth $19.

Currently, FirstCom Academy has a 4.9 star rating on Google with about 50,000 reviews.

SSG has also confirmed that FirstCom Academy’s referral programme was incentivised. These incentives were “provided to the referrer if his/her referee signed up and completed a course” with the training provider.

“For each successful referral, the referrer would receive a voucher incentive,” SSG said.

SSG guidelines stipulate that training providers offering WSQ courses must not provide any referral awards or rewards; conduct any lucky draws; provide gifts or vouchers; or use similar means to persuade or push the public to sign up for courses.

Layoffs Happening

But even more troubling is the news that layoffs have already begun to happen.

Employees have shared that these layoffs gave affected multiple departments, which include corporate sales, human resources and marketing.

Employees were told about the suspension and the layoffs during a town hall meeting, and that their last day of work would have been 25 Nov. Several employees were affected by the abrupt layoffs, which saw departments whittled down from numbers like 75 to 10.

Ironic, given that their whole schtick is to help retrain employees to become more employable or get employed by taking up courses and upskilling themselves.

(Their recent Instagram on Monday even posted something about how change is inevitable and how you may not be able to predict what happens tomorrow. Such as your employment status.)

Harry Lee, President of the Education Services Union (ESU), has explained that FirstCom Academy, while a non-unionised company, has employees who are members of the ESU, an NTUC-affiliated union, and NTUC U SME. These associations support small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and their workers.

Employees affected by the layoffs can also reach out to career advisory and employment facilitation services such as career coaching from NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), he added.

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Champa Ha