FirstCom Academy suspended for 3 months over non-compliance with SkillsFuture guidelines

SINGAPORE: Training provider FirstCom Academy has been suspended for three months over its non-compliance with guidelines stipulated by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG).

This comes amid layoffs at the company, which focuses on short Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) courses ranging from digital content creation to social media marketing.

In a statement on Wednesday, SSG said that it has been investigating FirstCom Academy's marketing practices and course quality since early this year after receiving public feedback.

FirstCom Academy will be suspended from Jan 1, 2025 to Mar 31, 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, FirstCom Academy, which operates four training centres at Paya Lebar, Woodlands, Chinatown and Tiong Bahru, cannot start WSQ courses.

SSG said it will also suspend funding subsidies for all courses at FirstCom Academy that start within that three-month period. This means that those courses will not qualify for government course fee subsidies or SkillsFuture Credit usage.

SSG will also terminate two of the training provider's WSQ courses due to "lapses in ensuring course quality". 

According to SSG's website, the WSQ is a national credential system that "trains, develops, assesses and certifies skills and competencies for the workforce".

Learners whose courses have begun or will start before the suspension period will not be impacted, even if the courses conclude during those three months, said SSG.

Those whose courses have not started and who do not want to continue with FirstCom Academy can contact the company to make alternative arrangements. They may also approach SSG for similar courses offered by other SSG-registered training providers.

The onus is on FirstCom Academy to inform affected learners that they will not receive the funding subsidies for their courses, and that they will be unable to attain the WSQ Statement of Attainment, which is 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, adding that it will not hesitate to take action against training providers found to have engaged in marketing misconduct.

A check by CNA showed that FirstCom Academy had put up an announcement on its website following its suspension.

"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.

REFERRAL PROGRAMME, INCENTIVES

A CNA reader, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, recently attended FirstCom Academy’s WSQ sake and whisky appreciation course. He said participants were encouraged to leave Google reviews in exchange for a S$5 NTUC voucher or an umbrella worth S$19.

Other attendees also told him of potential incentives if participants agreed to be interviewed. Those who referred others to the academy’s courses could also potentially be given an incentive of S$80.

“They’ve come to our office to hard sell even though we’ve already registered (for the courses),” said Mr Tan, who has attended several courses at FirstCom Academy.

He noted that many of the courses were attended by retirees.

According to SSG's terms for training providers, companies must not provide any referral awards or rewards, conduct lucky draws, provide gifts or vouchers, or use similar means to incentivise or persuade members of the public to sign up for registered or listed courses. 

In response to CNA's queries, SSG confirmed that FirstCom Academy's referral programme was incentivised and 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," it said.

SSG added that it has taken action against two other training providers for non-compliance against its marketing guidelines in 2024.

As of Wednesday, FirstCom Academy has a 4.9 star rating on Google with about 50,000 reviews. A check of the company’s website shows that it features its Google rating on the homepage, alongside other information such as subsidy and SkillsFuture credits eligibility.

LAYOFFS

An employee, who lost his job at the training provider, told CNA the layoffs affected several departments, including corporate sales, human resources and marketing.

The man, who declined to be named, said about 70 per cent of his department was told on Monday that they would have to go.

“The mood was rather shocking as most of us did not even expect such a sudden termination,” he told CNA.

He said the company had informed employees about the suspension during a town hall meeting and that Monday would be their last day at work.

“We immediately settled the administrative tasks, like returning IT equipment, and left (the office) after,” he added.

Another employee, who wanted to be known only as Adam and was also laid off, told CNA that the corporate sales, consumer, roadshows, and HR teams were affected by Monday's layoffs, which came abruptly.

According to Adam, his corporate sales department was hit particularly hard, with the team whittled down from 65 people to just 10.

Harry Lee, president of the Education Services Union (ESU), noted that while FirstCom Academy is a non-unionised company, there are employees who are members of the ESU, an NTUC-affiliated union, and NTUC U SME, which supports small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and their workers.

"In retrenchment exercises where there are individual union members who are in non-unionised companies, NTUC’s affiliated unions or associations will extend assistance to these individual members affected by the exercise," he told CNA.

"With reference to this exercise, ESU and NTUC U SME are actively reaching out to these members and other workers to provide support, if needed," he said.

Affected workers can also access career advisory and employment facilitation services such as career coaching from NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), he added.

In response to CNA's queries, spokespersons for the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) said that SSG had informed TAFEP on Nov 13 of the academy's impending suspension as a registered training provider.

"Since then, TAFEP has been engaging (FirstCom Academy) to provide advice and resources to manage its retrenchment exercise in a responsible manner," said the spokespersons in a statement on Dec 10. 

So far, one former employee of a FirstCom Academy-related entity has filed a salary claim with TADM, they added. 

When contacted by CNA, FirstCom Academy declined to comment.